Protests against tax rises and cost of living turn violent with hospitals reporting many wounded by gunshot
At least two people have been killed during anti-government protests in Kenya, as police opened fire on demonstrators protesting against the cost of living and tax increases.
Demonstrators hurled rocks at police and burned tyres in the streets on Wednesday, while the security forces fired teargas in the third round of anti-government protests called by the opposition this month.
Clashes between police and protesters led to two deaths in the opposition bastion of Kisumu, said George Rae, CEO of Jaramogi Oginga Odinga hospital.
“There are two bodies recorded at the morgue with gunshot wounds,” he told AFP by telephone, adding that 14 others were hospitalised.
In Nairobi’s Kangemi area, health records worker Alvin Sikuku told the AP that two injured men were brought into the Eagle Nursing Home clinic. “Police are using live bullets,” he said.
One man was shot in the back and severely wounded, and the other was shot in the leg.
Police arrested at least 300 people across the country, including nine senior opposition figures, according to the interior ministry and an opposition lawyer.
Schools were closed in the capital, Nairobi, the port city of Mombasa and Kisumu, the country’s third-largest city. Nairobi’s city centre was largely deserted with many businesses shut, while police erected checkpoints on roads leading to State House, President William Ruto’s official residence.
Ruto was elected last August pledging to champion the interests of the poor but prices of basic commodities have risen under his administration and last month his government passed tax increases.
The government says the levies on fuel and housing are needed to help deal with growing debt repayments and to fund job-creation initiatives.
Those arrested will be charged with various crimes including looting, malicious damage and arson, the interior ministry said.
In Migori town in western Kenya, two people sought treatment for gunshot wounds sustained during protests there, Citizen TV reported.
“This government is violating the constitution by being brutal on us while we are trying to uphold the same constitution through peaceful protests,” a protester in Mombasa who gave only his first name, Eric, told Reuters as he poured water over his face to wash away teargas.
Two water cannon trucks and dozens of riot police were stationed at the entrance to Kibera, a shantytown in south-western Nairobi. Protesters burned tyres and hurled rocks at police, who responded with volleys of teargas.
A TV station controlled by the Azimio La Umoja opposition party said that the spokesperson for its leader, Raila Odinga, had been arrested.
Opposition leaders have also called for demonstrations on Thursday and Friday.
A private sector lobby group says that protests this year have cost the economy more than $20m a day and civic leaders have warned about sporadic incidents of apparently ethnic-based violence.
Kenyan politics are often defined by tribal alliances, and hundreds of people were killed in fighting along ethnic lines after disputed elections in 2007 and 2017.
However, political analysts say the latest protests are unlikely to spiral into widespread ethnic violence as Ruto’s support base cuts across ethnic groups.
Churches and civil rights groups have called for Ruto and Odinga to resolve their differences through dialogue and call off the protests. Archbishop Anthony Muheria, a member of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the tax increases should be repealed.