Eight reported dead, more than 400 injured after protests erupt in Kenya

At least eight people died and 400 were injured during nationwide anti-government protests in Kenya on Wednesday, a year after deadly demonstrations against a tax bill, the national rights watchdog said.

Thousands of Kenyans took to the streets to commemorate last year’s demonstrations, in which more than 60 people died, with police firing tear gas and water cannon to disperse them in the capital Nairobi, according to local media and a Reuters witness.

Some protesters clashed with police, and the government-funded Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) said late on Wednesday that eight deaths had been reported across the country, all “allegedly from gunshot wounds”.

“Over 400 casualties have been reported, including demonstrators, police officers and journalists,” KNCHR said in a statement shared on its official X account.

The watchdog did not say who had shot the victims, noting heavy police deployment and “allegations of excessive use of force, including rubber bullets, live ammunition and water cannon, resulting in numerous injuries”.

Kenyan police spokesperson Muchiri Nyaga did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the KNCHR statement.

An official at the capital’s main Kenyatta National Hospital said the facility had received dozens of wounded people, “107 admitted, most with gunshot injuries”, the source said, referring to rubber bullets and live rounds. He said no deaths had been reported at the hospital.

National electricity provider Kenya Power said one of its security guards was shot dead during the protests while patrolling its headquarters in Nairobi.

Large crowds were seen earlier heading in the direction of State House, the president’s official residence, in scenes broadcast by Kenyan channel NTV before it and another broadcaster, KTN, were pulled off the air after defying an order to stop live broadcasts of the demonstrations.

“We have been switched off from all the signal broadcasters, now we are only live on YouTube and the website,” a senior official at NTV’s parent Nation Media Group told Reuters.

Both channels resumed broadcasts later on Wednesday after a court in Nairobi suspended the order issued by the Communications Authority of Kenya.

The communications authority’s order was condemned by the Kenya Editors Guild, which called it “a gross violation of the Constitution.”

Anger against police

Protesters torched court facilities in Kikuyu town on the outskirts of Nairobi, Citizen TV reported. Flames and thick smoke billowed from the court building in a video posted on the broadcaster’s X account.

Isolated clashes were reported in the port city of Mombasa, according to NTV, with protests also in the towns of Kitengela, Kisii, Matuu and Nyeri.

Although last year’s protests faded after President William Ruto withdrew proposed tax hikes, public anger has remained over the use of excessive force by security agencies, with fresh demonstrations this month over the death of a blogger in police custody.

Six people, including three police officers, were charged with murder on Tuesday over the killing of 31-year-old blogger and teacher, Albert Ojwang. All have pleaded not guilty.

Ojwang’s death has become a lightning rod for Kenyans still mourning those who perished in last year’s demonstrations, blamed on security forces, against a backdrop of dozens of unexplained disappearances.

“We are fighting for the rights of our fellow youths and Kenyans and the people who died since June 25 ... we want justice,” Lumumba Harmony, a protester, told Reuters in Nairobi.

The unprecedented scenes on 25 June 2024, showing police firing at protesters as they broke through barriers to enter parliament, created the biggest crisis of Ruto’s presidency and sparked alarm among Kenya’s international allies. DM