Crowds threw stones and looted businesses on Tuesday while police officers fired tear gas during fresh anti-government protests in Kenya’s capital Nairobi following last month’s deadly demonstrations.
Despite President William Ruto’s decision to withdraw the controversial bill last week, activists have continued to agitate against him online, sparking what many Gen-Z Kenyans called “seditious” protests.
Protesters flee from an attack by Kenyan riot police during an anti-government protest
Photo Credit: AFP
The Kenya National Commission for Human Rights (KNCHR) said on Monday that 39 people had been killed and 361 injured during two weeks of protests – with the worst violence occurring in Nairobi last Tuesday – and condemned the use of force against protesters as “excessive and disproportionate”.
It is the most serious crisis facing Ruto since he took office in September 2022, in a nation often regarded as a beacon of stability in a turbulent region.
A protester holds a newspaper during an anti-government protest as smoke billows from a burning barricade.
Photo Credit: AFP
After last week’s bloody chaos, young Kenyans, whose protest movement has no official leader, called for a new day of peaceful action on Tuesday, posting leaflets online using the hashtag “Rutomastgo”.
But in Nairobi’s central business district – which has been the focus of previous rallies – there were sporadic clashes on Tuesday afternoon. Police fired tear gas and used water cannon against groups of stone-throwing people, some of whom lit bonfires in deserted streets.
“The hooligans have infiltrated,” prominent Gen-Z protester Hanifa Aden wrote on X.
AFP journalists reported several arrests and injuries, although there were no official figures.
Kenyan police officers detain an injured man during an anti-government protest
Photo Credit: AFP
Images on Kenyan television showed protesters placing several coffins in the streets, some covered with the national flag, and having them removed by authorities.
Local politician John Kwenya told AFP that businessmen who closed their shops were “scared” by “hooligans”.
“This is economic sabotage,” said Kwenya, a member of the Nairobi City County Assembly.
Elsewhere in the country, local television broadcast images of mass protests in the coastal opposition stronghold of Mombasa, where several cars were set on fire, and Kenyan media shared video of at least one shop vandalised.
Protesters react after city furniture was set on fire during an anti-government protest
Photo Credit: AFP
Home Affairs Minister Kithure Kindiki condemned it as an “orgy of violence” and warned that the government would take action against anyone involved in “lawless anarchy and brutal looting”.
“This reign of terror against the people of Kenya and the impunity of dangerous criminal gangs must be ended at all costs,” he said.
On Tuesday last week, largely peaceful anti-tax rallies descended into deadly chaos when lawmakers passed the finance bill — a move deeply unpopular among Kenyans already struggling with a cost-of-living crisis.
After the vote was announced, a crowd vandalised the partially burning parliament complex in central Nairobi, and police opened fire on protesters.
Protesters flee inside the Kenyan Parliament on June 25, as Kenyan police officers watch.
Photo Credit: AFP
Although Ruto scrapped the law and appealed to young Kenyans for dialogue, it appears his actions did not satisfy his critics.
In a television interview on Sunday he defended his decision to call in the military to tackle the unrest, insisting he had “no blood on his hands.”
Protesters marched peacefully in the Rift Valley town of Nakuru on Tuesday, some carrying photographs of three people killed in last week’s protests.
“We want justice for the innocent Kenyans killed by police during peaceful protests,” Mary Lynn Wangui told AFP.
“Ruto has not apologised,” the 24-year-old said, as she waved a placard that read: “RutoMustGo”.
At a peaceful march in the lakeside city of Kisumu in western Kenya, 26-year-old protester Alan Odhiambo told AFP he had lost hope in Ruto.
“We promised a peaceful protest and that is what we have done, but Ruto has to go,” he said.
The state-funded KNCHR said on Monday that there had been 32 cases of “forced or involuntary disappearances” during previous protests and that 627 protesters had been arrested.
Kenya’s cash-strapped government had previously said the tax hikes were needed to fill its coffers and pay down a massive public debt of about 10 trillion shillings ($78 billion), or about 70 percent of gross domestic product.
In the Sunday interview, Ruto warned that the decision to drop the finance bill would force the government to borrow an additional $7.7 billion.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)