A Kenyan doctor has told the BBC that his hospital has treated 53 children for free after tear gas was thrown into their classroom by police during protests on Wednesday.
“As a parent, you positively and fearfully react, which compelled me to act without asking for money,” Dr Aron Shikuku, from the private Eagle Nursing Home hospital in the capital, Nairobi, told the BBC’s Newsday programme.
Healthcare in Kenya can be quite costly with only 19% of the population having access to any form of medical insurance – according to the latest statistics from 2018.
The country’s public hospitals are usually severely understaffed and underequipped while the cost of getting treatment at a private hospital can often lead to crippling medical debt.
Dr Shikuku said the children were discharged after being treated for shock and breathing problems as a result of the tear gas.
He said they were being monitored as they settle back into their school, which is in Kangemi, a slum area in the north-west of the city.
There were demonstrations around the country called by the opposition over the rising cost of living, but they turned deadly.
Six people were killed, the authorities said.