Original subtitles

This programme contains scenes which some viewers may find upsetting

Welcome to Global Eye from the BBC World Service.

Now, every week we bring you the best of the World Service's

investigative journalism and unmissable reporting

from BBC teams around the globe.

I'm Waihiga Mwaura, a BBC presenter based here in Kenya.

Well, over the last year, the streets of Kenya

have been boiling over with frustration,

particularly among Gen Z.

These continued protests are the culmination of anger

over accusations of widespread corruption and poor governance.

Peaceful demonstrations here last year turned deadly

after police crackdowns.

We'll share with you the breakthrough BBC Eye investigation

on those protests and explain what's happened since.

Also in this week's programme...

..the secrets of a people whose brains are ageing more slowly.

What can we learn about health and longevity

from an extraordinary community

living deep in the Amazon rainforest?

For months, the mood here in Nairobi has been raw and defiant,

particularly among Kenya's youth.

Now, this country has a very young population.

Approximately three quarters of its 56 million people

are under the age of 30.

So it's a powerful force that has expressed real concerns

about its future.

The cost of living has risen, youth unemployment is at 17%,

and over 40% of under-34s are living below the poverty line.

Riot police have been told to use whatever force

is necessary to put an end to politically inspired unrest.

Kenyans have a long history of protest,

with many Gen Zs inspired by the 1990 protests

that restored multiparty democracy here

and have become a symbol of resistance.

Last summer, thousands of young people,

many of whom felt betrayed by what they saw as broken promises,

gathered here for protests that soon turned deadly.

Well, to shed light on what really happened,

the investigative team at BBC Africa Eye

did a forensic deep dive into more than 5,000 images of that day.

This is what they uncovered.

In June last year, blood was spilt on the grounds

of Kenya's Parliament.

The month before, the government,

led by its president, William Ruto, proposed its annual budget -

the 2024 Finance Bill.

If we are a serious state, we must be able to enhance our taxes.

By raising taxes, it promised to address

the country's growing debt problem.

But many young Kenyans, nicknamed Gen Zs, didn't see it that way.

No more taxes!

On June 25th, everything changed.

More than 100,000 Kenyans hit the streets of Nairobi.

Their aim...

..occupy the Parliament.

At first, security forces held them back with tear gas and truncheons,

but as the day went on, tactics changed.

At least three young men were killed at Kenya's Parliament.

Among them was a 27-year-old student, Eric Shieni.

That evening, President Ruto gave his account of what had happened.

Today, an otherwise legitimate expression

of the fundamental rights and freedoms of assembly

was infiltrated and hijacked by a group of organised criminals.

Though he regretted the deaths, he thanked the security forces

and placed the blame squarely with those he called organised criminals.

Since then, no official investigation has been published

and no-one held to account for the killings on June 25th.

But BBC Africa Eye has been digging.

We've mapped more than 5,000 photos and videos

to reconstruct those killings.

You could see he's clearly aiming,

meaning he was aiming to kill as a message to them.

Now we can show you exactly what happened.

We can pick out the killers in the crowd,

we can reveal who they were working for,

and we can offer an answer to one simple question -

was there any reason to spill blood

on the grounds of Kenya's Parliament?

Honourable members...

..we have quorum to transact business.

June 25th, 2024.

Yes? Order.

9.30am at Kenya's Parliament.

We are dealing with a very important issue of the Finance Bill.

Inside, MPs are filing in for the last reading

of the government's Finance Bill.

Outside... SHOUTS, WHISTLES AND CHANTS

My name is Ademba Allans.

I'm a journalist by profession, currently in school.

On June 25th, for me it was just a normal day.

I knew people would just be there, shout, "Ruto must go!"

These things are being livestreamed on national TV.

That's when I realised that it was going to be serious.

Honourable members, do we put the question?

By the time voting begins...

Will as many as of that opinion say aye?

..numbers have hit over 10,000 in central Nairobi.

Now the numbers start getting bigger

and people actually start getting arrested.

For three hours, more than 100,000 protesters pour in from the east,

the north and the west.

They unite and push towards their target - Parliament.

Order, honourable members. Order.

Despite the chaos on the streets...

Go ahead and vote.

..MPs are still in the chamber.

I vote yes.

Tear gas and rubber bullets hound the protesters.

GUNFIRE

But they keep coming.

People had one sole goal...

..to enter the Parliament.

By 2pm, police are mounting a last defence

at the north-eastern corner of Parliament.

Inside the chamber...

Nays, 106.

The ayes have it.

..the Finance Bill's voted in.

Word instantly reaches the protesters.

After some of us getting arrested and being beaten up,

they still pass it to be an actual bill.

Now this is when everybody is saying that, whatever happens,

we are going to enter the Parliament and show the MPs

that we believe in what we are fighting for.

At 2.20, they break through.

It is happening, guys! It is happening!

GUNFIRE

SIRENS WAIL

They've reached Parliament.

People are inside the Parliament.

Over the next hour, demonstrators break through the fence,

but don't make it inside.

After two of them are killed, they try for Parliament again.

But this time they do it differently.

People came in numbers.

Like, a whole stadium is there.

Most of them are just...

They fear for their life but they want to get the Parliament.

One man at the front of the pack stands out.

We saw him earlier, but we still can't see who he is.

But in this one we can.

No jacket, but the gloves are the same.

And the shorts match too.

His name is Eric Shieni.

On a normal day, he'd be studying at university.

But today he's on the front line.

They were not running. They move, walking, then they squat down.

The guards were overwhelmed. There's nothing that they could do.

GUNFIRE

Despite the warning shots,

Eric stays with them as they make their final push.

People now entered the Parliament. People were inside the Parliament.

Once inside, momentum turns to mayhem.

The damage is in the millions.

Even the chamber is breached.

Mr Speaker, sir, I'm here to address you.

You must go. Ruto must go.

The destruction is severe but short-lived.

After five minutes, they're leaving.

Maybe it's an adrenaline rush or something, but your...

..your brain telling you that somebody is going to die.

There's Eric.

Something spooks the crowd.

He's caught in the stampede,

and we lose him.

Ademba's right - somebody's going to die.

GUNFIRE

What just happened?

Behind the smoke, three bodies remain.

Two of them are wounded.

Ademba's there again, leading the evacuation.

This person is heavily bleeding.

There is no ambulance, so we carry him.

They are shooting us. Why are you shooting us?

Why are you killing us?

I feared for my life, that my parents would never see me again.

But I also feared to let other people die when I could help.

But the third casualty's beyond Ademba's help.

UNTRANSLATED

A bullet's torn through the cap and its owner - Eric.

Eric Kayoni Shieni.

Good day. Good day. A perfect fit. WOMAN LAUGHS

He was a 27-year-old student of the University of Nairobi.

He studied finance.

I hope that his death is not in vain.

And as long as we live, we shall fight for justice for him

and the others who died in the streets.

HE SINGS ALONG TO SONG

HE LAUGHS

Everything we've seen up till now leads us to one question -

who killed Eric Shieni?

If we follow the trail of evidence to the fatal shot,

we can find the man who fired it.

It starts with the protesters leaving Parliament.

My name is Faith Odhiambo,

and I'm the president of the Law Society of Kenya.

The video is very clear. It shows that the protesters were walking out

of Parliament and when the shooting starts, they were all running out.

As a reminder, Eric's here...

..in his yellow gloves.

GUNFIRE

We lose him for a moment...

..but pick him back up as he reaches the exit.

A last flash of his yellow gloves,

and then Eric goes down.

Now we've got the gunshot, we can get the shooter.

At first, the bedlam obscures any clues.

Then this man steps into frame.

You could see he's clearly aiming.

So, meaning he was aiming to kill as a message to them.

Have a look from another angle.

He's just 25m from Eric.

And there's no question where his rifle is pointing.

The aim was to kill those protesters.

Eric was just the unfortunate one.

With this video alone, our trail to the shooter looks like it's ending.

But he's got a giveaway...

..his uniform.

A white shoulder patch,

a matte green helmet,

tan boots...

..and a solid stock rifle.

Perhaps that's enough.

Three minutes after the shooting, a photographer caught these.

At first, the uniforms all seem the same,

but there's actually subtle differences.

Wrong headgear.

No shoulder patch.

Different rifle stock.

But what about him?

Same helmet, same boots,

and a solid stock rifle.

And the shoulder patch?

Were he the shooter, it would be on his other shoulder,

which he shows in this video shot seconds later.

There.

We scoured through more than 150 images of the scene,

taken within ten minutes of the shooting.

In all of them, only one man matches all the criteria on this list.

Him.

Eric deserved a fair hearing.

We don't know if he damaged Parliament or not.

He wasn't aggressive, he was leaving the premises.

They could have had him arrested.

But the fact that you shoot his head,

it was clearly an intention to kill.

You have become the judge, the jury

and the sentence executioner for Eric.

Now, the BBC investigation was front-page news

when it was released here,

and Amnesty International and the Kenya Human Rights Commission

said the officers identified in the documentary should face the law.

It was actually debated in Kenya's Parliament

the day after its release.

If, as Kenya, we were able to acknowledge that things went wrong

and we need to fix it,

then, Mr Speaker, even if BBC aired it, it doesn't matter.

We have to fix our own problems on our own.

In response to the protesters' demands,

President Ruto has acknowledged the youth unemployment crisis

and other challenges in the country,

but said these issues existed long before he came to power

and that under his watch the economy has stabilised.

Meanwhile, the demonstrations did continue,

with more deaths this year

and simmering anger among Gen Z protesters,

meaning the ongoing cycle seems unlikely to be resolved

any time soon.

The 2027 elections for Parliament and for the presidency

could offer an opportunity for change and resolution,

but, for now, this seems a long way off.

Here in Nairobi, it doesn't feel like this movement is burning out.

Here's some of the other brilliant BBC World Service content

you can catch this week.

Global News Podcast is the place to get your daily fix

of news and analysis.

Check it out if you want to find out more about President Trump's speech

at the UN General Assembly, or the recent mysterious drone activities

at Danish airports.

And Denmark's growing security concerns are the subject

of the weekly radio documentary Assignment.

With the country dramatically increasing its national service,

18-year-old girls are now facing the call-up.

We've had rare access to a group of those new recruits

as they undergo training.

Listen on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

Every week on Global Eye, we want to take you to places

you don't always see in the news -

and this week we want to share the story of a community

in a remote part of Bolivia which has been described

in a scientific study as one of the healthiest groups

ever to have lived.

Our BBC Mundo team went to meet them to find out whether

a lifestyle that might seem challenging to many of us

could actually hold the key to a longer life.

This is the Maniqui River in the Bolivian Amazon.

The area is home to the Tsimane, a relatively isolated nomadic people

in the north of the country, with a particular characteristic.

Many of the older members of this community maintain exceptional

physical and mental vigour until very old age...

..something that has attracted the attention of scientists.

This is Martina Canchi Nate.

She is 84 years old.

That vitality that we were warned about

left us breathless in a short time.

Two studies, published between 2017 and 2023,

found that the arteries of these older people are much younger

than those of people of the same age in other countries,

and that their brains also age more slowly.

In the town of San Borja, the closest to the Tsimane territory,

American anthropologist Hillard Kaplan has been studying

the health of this ethnic group for two decades.

One of the things we could say is a 75-year-old Tsimane's arteries

were more like a 50-year-old American's arteries.

Kaplan and his colleagues found that 85% of these older people

had zero risk of heart disease,

and that half of those over 80 did not even have signs

of calcification in their arteries,

one of the main indicators of arterial disease.

They also did not have problems with obesity,

hypertension or hyperglycaemia.

But what is the secret of their good health?

A key factor is their diet.

Husband and wife Hilda and Pablo invited us

to harvest rice in their field.

This is what the Tsimane have done ancestrally,

basing their diet on fishing, hunting and gathering.

THEY LAUGH

We accompanied Juan Gutierrez on a day of hunting.

The physical routine of the older Tsimane is another determining

factor of their health.

Grandparents, like Juan, walk on average 17,000 steps per day.

In Europe, the average is approximately 6,000 steps.

Diet and physical activity mean that the older Tsimane

have 70% less muscle atrophy than people of the same age

in the United Kingdom, Japan or the United States.

And just like their arteries, scientists found that their brain

also ages more slowly.

The fact that surprised the researchers is that

the loss of brain function is 40% slower in the Tsimane.

Dementia, particularly Alzheimer's, is less frequent.

Despite their great physical condition, the older Tsimane

constantly suffer from inflammation

or parasitic diseases detected in 100% of the volunteers.

When they need medical assistance, they have to travel to the city.

Dr Daniel Rodriguez is a member of the team that studies

the ageing of the Tsimane.

Scientists highlight the very tough conditions

the Tsimane people must endure.

For years, life expectancy was hampered by high maternal

and child mortality.

When the studies began, life expectancy was around 45 years,

but this exposure to infectious and parasitic diseases could be

a third key factor in the longevity of the Tsimane.

For this reason, experts are studying how their immune system -

which is more balanced against bacteria and parasites -

protects them from arterial diseases.

The Tsimane feel proud to know that their ancestral lifestyle is now

a health reference beyond the forest.

THEY LAUGH

Well, thanks for joining me in Nairobi.

Now, next week, Global Eye will be reporting from Cuba.

Goodbye.