(Fwd) [70] NAIROBI CAMPUS CLOSES AFTER STUDENT RIOT IN KENYAN

["Curtis Price" <cansv@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

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Date:          Tue, 25 Feb 1997 01:01:24 -0500
From:          NewsHound@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (NewsHound)

Subject:       [70] NAIROBI CAMPUS CLOSES AFTER STUDENT RIOT IN KENYAN CAPITAL

Selected by your NewsHound profile entitled "RIOTS". The selectivity score was
70 out of 100.

Nairobi campus closes after student riot in Kenyan capital
By PATRICK MAJUTE

Associated Press Writer

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- Nairobi University closed Kenya's largest campus Monday
after hundreds of rioting students took to the streets to protest the fire death
 of a student leader.

Police said they were investigating the death of Solomon Muruli, whose charred
body was found in his room Sunday after a fire swept through his dormitory on
the university's Kikuyu campus, 12 miles outside the city.

Muruli had accused police of kidnapping and torturing him last year after his
involvement in November demonstrations against police brutality and
deteriorating living conditions at the campus.

He told fellow students last week he had received a death threat before he
identified the police officer suspected in his torture.

Students said they suspect police may have been involved in his death.

Police deny they ever held Muruli. They had no comment on his death.

Students waving tree branches blocked the center of Nairobi Sunday night to
protest the death. Some shops were looted, but it was not certain whether the
looters were students.

``We are tired of being killed by police,'' the student chanted. ``We want
justice.''

``The government thinks that these educated people are becoming a threat,'' said
 one student, who identified himself only as Maina.

The semi-official Kenya Television Network reported that several phone booths
were smashed, and students hurled stones at passing motorists. Outside the
university's town campus, students set tires on fire and blocked a main highway
with paving stones.

Last November, police shot and killed three students at Kenyatta and Egerton
Universities, two others in Kenya's public university system.

AP-WS-02-24-97 2340EST



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