NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 5 – ​The National Police Service says a teenager who died from a gunshot wound following a police operation in the Majengo area of Nairobi was a suspected bhang peddler​.

Police ​Spokesperson Michael Nyagah explained that 17-year old Ibrahim Ramadhan Chege was being pursued by undercover officers on Monday evening when he was fatally shot during a confrontation between the police and local youth.

“The incident began when two plainclothes officers in Majengo’s Gorofani area attempted to arrest a young man believed to be carrying a bag of cannabis,” Nyagah said.

However, their efforts were met with resistance as a group of youths intervened, attacking the officers with stones and crude weapons.

“The two officers were injured as a result of being pelted with stones and crude weapons. They shot in the air as they tried to free themselves,” Nyagah added.

“A young man was shot in the melee and taken to the hospital with a gunshot wound,” the police spokesperson stated.

According to a statement released by Nyagah, the boy succumbed to his injuries around 3:15 a.m. on Tuesday while receiving treatment for the wounds he had sustained.

His death sparked violent protests in the area, with angry youth barricading roads in Shauri Moyo and Majengo.

Authorities confirmed that three makeshift houses belonging to Kamukunji Administration Police officers were torched during the protests, along with a government vehicle assigned to the Shauri Moyo Police Station.

In a separate incident, police discovered the body of another individual with a stab wound in a dark alley in Shauri Moyo on Tuesday morning.

While the situation in the area remains tense, police say calm has largely been restored.

Investigations into both deaths and the destruction of property are ongoing.