(Nairobi) A man was shot and killed in Kenya on Friday, where anti-government protests were taking place over the cost of living and new taxes.
Kenyan police earlier fired tear gas at opposition leader Raila Odinga’s convoy in Nairobi, one of the towns where protests were taking place.
Police took similar action to break up rallies in Kisumu town, as rights groups condemned “arbitrary arrests”.
“One person died from gunshot wounds,” said Alex Ochieng, an official at Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Hospital in Kisumu, adding that the person killed was a man.
“We have two more people with gunshot wounds and four who were hit by blunt objects,” he told reporters.
An AFP reporter also saw police make several arrests in Nairobi as security tightened for the latest round of protests called by Mr Odinga this year against President William Ruto’s policies.
PHOTO BY BRIAN INGANGA, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga addresses his supporters.
Raila Odinga, opposition leader and unsuccessful presidential candidate in 2022 against William Ruto, announced at the rally in Nairobi his intention to collect 10 million signatures to remove his rival from office.
“Kenyans elected leaders to parliament and they betrayed them,” he said to applause.
“Ruto himself, who seized power illegally, betrayed Kenyans,” added the former candidate, saying the August 2022 election was “stolen” from him.
The police also used tear gas to disperse demonstrators in the port city of Mombasa in particular, according to images broadcast by television, while the protesters chanted “The fight is not over”.
In a statement, several human rights organizations, including the Kenyan Human Rights Commission, denounced the “injuries and arbitrary arrests against peaceful protesters”, referring to protesters “dragged to the ground” in Nairobi.
Amnesty International spoke of “selective excessive force” deployed by the police.
Raila Odinga’s Azimio alliance, which had called for these protests against the impact of new taxes on Kenyans, announced a new protest action on Wednesday in Nairobi, calling for “protests across the country”.
High prices
“Ruto imposes taxes on us without our consent and makes laws that make life much more complicated,” Azimio said in a statement released this week.
“I hope this demonstration will change something,” Alex Dwisa, a 24-year-old worker, told AFP. “The cost of living is too high, I don’t have 10k (10,000 Kenyan shillings, 94 Canadian dollars) to send my two children to school,” he lamented.
Between March and May, the opposition coalition had organized anti-government demonstrations which, according to the authorities, killed three people.
Last week, the president promulgated a budget law which introduces a series of new taxes, despite criticism from the opposition and the population of this country affected by high inflation.
The text provides in particular for an increase in VAT on fuel from 8 to 16%, as well as an unpopular levy on wages in order to finance a low-cost housing program. Initially planned at 3%, it was reduced to 1.5%.
In an economic context marked by persistent inflation (+7.9% over one year in June), William Ruto seeks to generate more than 2.1 billion dollars in order to replenish the coffers of the State, heavily indebted in particular by the major infrastructure projects of his predecessor Uhuru Kenyatta, of which he was vice-president.
But last Friday, the Nairobi court suspended implementation of the legislation after a senator filed a complaint challenging its constitutional legality.
Despite the move, the national energy regulator later in the day announced a pump price hike to account for the doubling of VAT to 16%, as stipulated in the law.