One of the first times that Chris Kaba’s parents spoke at length publicly about the void left by his loss was more than a month after his death.
They’d been at the forefront of protests, viewed the bodycam footage of the incident and listened through the opening of an inquest.
Now at a community conference in their son’s name, in front of an audience including activists, bereaved campaigners and their supporters, they felt able to share.
Taking to the stage and sitting down because he felt unable to stand, his father Prosper Kaba asked the audience to take out their phones and press them to their ears before reliving the moment he received news of the 24-year-old’s death.
He placed his own phone to his head and said: “Someone will tell you, ‘sorry to tell you your son has been killed by police’.”
“How would you feel?” he asked. “Life becomes blunt and meaningless. This is what I got 12 hours after Chris’s death.”
“I will carry Chris’s death with me for my whole life,” he added.
Chris Kaba: Mourners gather for funeral of unarmed man shot dead by police
Chris Kaba’s family speak out after being shown bodycam footage of police shooting him dead
‘Chris Kaba. Say his name!’ Hundreds protest after black man is shot dead by police
His mother Helen Nkama also spoke that evening about his final hours.
Through tears, she explained how Chris, who often called her “sweet mother”, had eaten dinner at home and promised to come back after seeing friends, but never returned.
“My heart is broken every day – I miss Chris, I miss his voice,” she said.
Since then, they’ve not only voiced their pain in public, but they’ve also spoken out in search of answers about what happened on 5 September 2022.
Protest march
In late October at Downing Street, they were at an annual march organised by the United Families and Friends Campaign (UFFC) for families who had lost loved ones in similar circumstances.
In a sea of placards, including many featuring their son’s face, they walked down Whitehall, before delivering a letter to the prime minister, demanding an end to deaths in police custody and requesting an urgent meeting with Rishi Sunak, Home Secretary Suella Braverman and the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan.
Outside the gates of the most famous street in the country, the tears from a couple of weeks earlier at the conference were gone. In their place was anger and determination.
At this point, they’d still not been given his body for a funeral, as the Independent Office for Police Conduct’s investigation into his death continued.
IOPC investigation is ongoing
The IOPC has since told Sky News: “Investigation timeframes vary on a case-by-case basis, but when someone has died, we are often dependent on a number of expert external reports which can include pathology, toxicology, ballistics, use of force and vehicle examination experts.
“These reports can often take a number of months to complete and while our investigators work hard to reduce those timeframes as much as possible, we are reliant on external experts in order to progress our investigations and unfortunately this process can take longer than we would ideally like.”
They also told us they’d been working on the time scales for their investigations and what is now “an area of focus for them”.
That day, though as Chris’s parents spoke, they made their demands clear and reiterated their questions.
“In front of the police Chris suffered a lot,” began Helen. “That’s why I want them to tell me, how was the death of Chris, the word of Chris at the last minute, what did Chris say? I want them to answer me and why? So that’s why, I’m standing seeking justice for Chris, I need justice.”
Usually the quieter of the two, Chris’s father then stepped in to give his thoughts.
‘We need justice’
“We need it (justice) as soon as possible. They need to take it as an urgent problem,” he said.
“Yes,” said Helen, supporting Chris’s father. “As Chris’s dad said, we need justice now, we need it now, for Chris’s sake, we need it now. Chris didn’t die for vain.”
Also with them that day was Jefferson Bosela. He is Chris’s cousin and the family spokesperson.
A former English teacher, he left the job and the pupils he loved to become a constant in the family’s fight. Fielding countless media requests and speaking at numerous events.
In an interview a few days after hundreds of people took to central London for a protest, he spoke about petitions and protests, but also the bond he shared with Chris.
He described their last conversation saying, “I remember saying ‘I love you,’ and I can remember him saying ‘I love you too big Cuz’.”
He added he had trouble sleeping. “I’m just thinking about his last moments,” he said.
“I don’t think the police officer who pulled the trigger has understood how many lives he’s impacted.”
It was also Jefferson and the family who invited a select few journalists to Chris Kaba’s funeral in November.
His loved ones finally had their chance to mourn and before the white coffin was even carried into the church, the sound of their cries cut through the air as the cortege arrived outside.
The coffin was brought to the front of the church to rest in front of the pulpit, alongside pictures of Chris, bronze balloons and a floral arrangement that spelled out the word “son”.
It was during the funeral that it emerged that Chris’s daughter had been born in the same week.
There were tributes from his fiance Karimah’s family, including her sister.
“Karimah couldn’t make it today but Chris always wanted the best for my sister and was really excited to become a dad,” she said.
She added: “He would always rub my sister’s belly, he used to talk to her belly and say to the baby, you’re going to have anything you ever want and that daddy loves you.”
Following the church service, the horse-led procession moved to a nearby cemetery for his burial.
There was singing and prayers, while dozens of people moved forward to drop flowers into his grave.
Once the coffin had been lowered and covered by the first mounds of soil, only a small number of mourners remained.
That group included Chris’s parents. They’d finally laid their son to rest and said their goodbyes – but with the investigation still ongoing and a potentially long legal road ahead – they won’t have closure yet.
