Mid last month Kelvin Nderitu, 23 and Elias Kinyori, 22, were assaulted by one Moses Odanga at an apartment they were staying in Kayole.
Odanga alongside his friend knocked on their door on Saturday May 14 at night. Once the door was opened, they descended on them with blows and kicks for allegedly stealing a TV set worth Kshs7,500.
The duo were considered to be criminals because of donning dreadlocks and having tattoos all over their bodies, yet they are just artistes.
On the fateful day Kinyori had just returned from a three-day interior design project in Kitui.
They were however not aware of the TV that they were being accused of stealing. Nderitu and Kinyori defended themselves but their pleas fell on deaf ears.
Odanga and his crew attempted to push them from the third floor of the storey building and even plucked one of the victim’s dreadlocks.
They only got a chance to save their lives, jumping from the first floor to the ground outside the compound, when the suspect went for a metal rod in his house to come and finish what he had started.
They had to jump since the gate had been locked and they didn’t have the key, leaving behind everything they owned including a tattoo machine, electronics, paintings among other things.
They reported the matter to the police and they have not received any help to date forcing them to come up with another way of addressing their concerns before ending up like their four friends who were murdered in Kitengela.
Kinyori and Nderitu happened to know Fred Mureithi, 30, and Victor Mwangi, 25, their friends Mike George, 29, and Nicholas Musa, 28, who were lynched by mob in August last year over suspicions of being cattle thieves.
The artists used their images to call upon Kenyans to stop profiling people with dreadlocks and tattoos as criminals.
“We just want people to stop profiling those with dreadlocks and tattoos as criminals. They have things they are doing,” Kinyori said in a YouTube interview.
“I do something. Don’t look at my hair and think that I am an idler. This is just a style and in me I know what I do. If it reaches a point you want to interfere with my life until you think I am a thief because of my look, that is not good at all,” Nderitu added..
The duo however do not regret having tattoos and dreadlocks. They are now in hiding because they fear for their lives and can not disclose their whereabouts.
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