MERU, Kenya — Anger boiled over on Tuesday when students from Meru University poured onto the streets to protest what they called worsening insecurity around their campus.
The demonstrations quickly escalated. Students blocked the busy Meru–Maua highway with bonfires, forcing traffic to a standstill. Police responded with teargas after some students hurled stones at officers.
At the heart of the protest is a simple demand: safety. Students say they are living in fear due to constant attacks on their way home from evening classes. Reports of muggings, stabbings and violent assaults have grown common.
“The insecurity is unbearable. Many of us have been attacked, and the darkness makes it worse,” said a student leader, reading from a statement issued by the Student Association of Meru University (SAMU).
The association’s Secretary General, Cosmas Emerkwa, and President Teddy Samuel signed the letter calling for the protest. They said their attempts to engage local authorities had gone unanswered. “We resolved to demonstrate because nothing was being done,” they wrote.
Students blame the lack of streetlights and minimal security patrols in residential areas around the university. Most incidents, they say, occur in the Mascan area, where gangs have targeted students for months.
This is not the first time insecurity has sparked outrage in Meru. In January, protests broke out after a visiting student from the Technical University of Mombasa was stabbed to death while in the town. That case, too, drew promises of action that students say never materialised.
Police confirmed Tuesday’s protest but declined to comment on whether new security measures would be put in place. Local leaders have yet to issue a statement.
For now, many students remain skeptical. “We only want to study in peace,” one demonstrator said. “But how can we, when we are not safe even walking home?”
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