Youth storm and loot Naivas Supermarket in Nyeri on June 25, 2025.
Business owners counted heavy losses as demonstrators clashed with police and looters struck unchecked—stealing goods worth millions and destroying property—as protests erupted in at least 26 of 47 counties.
In Nairobi, Ms Yvonne Otieno sat motionless outside the charred remains of her shop in Bus Station, her shoulders slumped and her eyes red and swollen from crying. The metal bars of her shop had been broken, the shelves ransacked and the floor strewn with the fragments of what had once been her dream.
Youth storm and loot Naivas Supermarket in Nyeri on June 25, 2025.
Just a few months ago, in March, Ms Otieno told the Nation she had taken a Sh1 million loan to restock her growing fashion business. She had poured her heart, energy and every borrowed coin into transforming the modest space into a thriving boutique that served a loyal customer base in downtown Nairobi.
Seven months ago, she lost her husband, and since then she has worked tirelessly to raise her two children.
But on Wednesday she sat in silence unable to comprehend the loss.
She had chosen to stay home in Ongata Rongai with her children fearing rising tension due to the protests. Just past noon, her phone rang and on the other end was a neighbour, breathless and panicked: her shop was being looted.
“I rushed here, hoping maybe it wasn’t true,” Ms Otieno said, her voice cracking. “But when I got here, it was all gone. Everything. They didn’t leave a single shoe.”
Her daughter Bridgit stood quietly beside her mother, wide-eyed with confusion and worry. She didn’t speak—she only watched as her mother’s world unravelled before her.
Ms Otieno estimates her losses at over Sh2 million—double the loan she had yet to repay.
Youth storm and loot Naivas Supermarket in Nyeri on June 25, 2025.
“I don’t even know where to begin. This business was all I had. It was how I fed my children. How do I start again?” she asked.
Several stalls were looted around the Bus Station area with the thieves making away with goods worth millions.
Businesses along Mfangano Street, Khoja and Moi Avenue in Nairobi bore the brunt of the violence. In Khoja wines and spirits shops were broken into, and their stocks wiped out. A section of shops were also set ablaze.
At the junction of Moi Avenue and Khoja, electronic shops and boutiques were looted. It took two police water cannons and a Nairobi County fire engine to save the building by putting out the fire.
Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Principal Secretary Susan Mang’eni condemned the violence and looting.
“The destruction of sources of livelihood is akin to depriving a business owner of their life. The MSME sector accommodates most of our workforce in Kenya. Someone today has been rendered jobless. A child tonight will miss their milk. Someone will go to bed with no food. Someone will struggle to pay a loan. Someone may not access healthcare. Someone may fall into depression. The list goes on—all because of wanton destruction of businesses and property,” Ms Mang’eni posted on X.
“To those organising protests, it is incumbent on you to respect and observe the rights of small business owners to engage and thrive economically. Economic rights are human rights. Let us not be selective,” she added.
In Nakuru, thieves looted a Total Petrol Station on Kenyatta Avenue before police intervened. Transport along the Nakuru-Eldoret highway was also disrupted, forcing motorists to seek alternative routes.
Chieni Supermarket in Nyeri, vandalised during the Gen Z anniversary protests.
In Nyeri town, looters attempted to storm Kieni MP Njoroge Wainaina’s Chieni Supermarket. Police fled the scene after rioters overpowered them. Mr Wainaina, who was in the premises, locked himself in a room within the building and declared that looters would have to face him before gaining entry.
“I cannot stay at home and watch my business be destroyed again. I have to do something,” he told a group of locals acting as marshals during the protests. Eventually, the looters were repelled and retreated into nearby slums where they regrouped. During the June 2024 protests, Mr Wainaina said he lost goods worth over Sh200 million to looting.
The looters stormed a Naivas Supermarket in Nyeri after failing to break into Chieni Supermarket before plainclothes officers opened fire on them. One was reportedly shot in the head.
Meru’s Bei Sawa Supermarket in Makutano was looted while the Kenya Revenue Authority offices in Embu were raided. The thieves also looted a Safaricom shop in the town.
In Kisii, looters broke into Shivling Supermarket, prompting police to intervene.
Reporting by Ndubi Moturi, Kevin Cheruiyot, George Munene, Mercy Mwende, Mercy Koskei and David Muchui
