March Planned In Memory of Chris Kaba

A single shot was fired from the gun of an armed officer at Chris Kaba on Monday 5 September; the young rapper - who was also a soon-to-be dad died hours later in hospital that night. News of his death broke soon after. The problem? Not one article mentioned the word 'murder', despite it being exactly that. In a statement shared on 7 September, the Independent Office for Police Conduct wrote the 'error' occurred due to the car Kaba was driving at the time of his murder 'was linked to a firearms incident', and yet no firearms were found at the scene of the crime. Fault or not, a black man died this week at the hands of the Metropolitan Police Service.

The tragic news comes shortly after BLM in 2020, (triggered by the death of George Floyd), in which mass protests broke out all over the globe in support of black rights. Not to mention, some 29 years after the death of Stephen Lawrence - an event which prompted a formal inquiry that found the Met to be 'institutionally racist'. Nothing has changed.

The announcement of the march tomorrow that will see protestors walk from Parliament Square up to Scotland Yard comes after Kaba's family have demanded an official murder investigation into his death. 'We want to be heard and seen. This case is not going to get brushed under the carpet', a relative of Kaba told The Big Issue. A separate gathering in support of Kaba took place on Thursday evening, with attendants demanding answers on the steps of Brixton and holding a minute's silence.

In a statement released through a charity Inquest, Kaba's family called for a full homicide investigation. The statement read as follows:

'The family of Chris Kaba seek a homicide investigation into his death from the outset. We have today told the IOPC of that demand and that we do not want any delay as has happened in other fatal shootings — otherwise we and the wider public can have no confidence that the police will be held to account.'