- The protests mark the 35th anniversary of the prodemocratic manifestations.
- Police shoot to disperse large crowds of Nairobi protesters.
- Kenya Interior Minister described the ‘terrorism’ of protests last month.
Kenya’s police shot to disperse protesters in Nairobi who marked the 35th anniversary of prodemocratic demonstrations on Monday, and the police said that 11 people were killed throughout the country in the last anti -government protests to end in blood spill.
The death of the blogger Albert Ojwang in police custody last month has given protests a new impulse, feeding anger against the authorities and bringing hundreds to the streets.
TO Reuters The journalist saw the police shoot by the advanced protesters in the Kangemi suburb in Nairobi, with a man later lying on the road with a bleeding wound.
Eagle’s elder home of the suburbio said that six people had been admitted with injuries, and that two had died from gunshot wounds. A source at the Kenyatta National Hospital said he was treating 24 people injured, but did not explain their wounds.
Armed gangs next to the police
Kenya’s police said 11 people had died, while 52 officers had been injured. He did not say who was responsible for the murders.
“Preliminary reports indicate deaths, injuries, damage to motor vehicles and several looting incidents,” police said in a statement.
The law agents have largely deployed in Nairobi since the protests led by young people in June 2024 who initially focused on tax increases, but expanded to cover issues such as corruption, police brutality and the inexplicable disappearances of government critics.
Police used tear gas and water cannons on Monday to disperse hundreds of protesters who advanced along a road that connects Kangmi to the center of Nairobi.
Hours later, the protesters and the police fought, and a reuters journalist saw the police open fire when the crowd accused them.
The National Human Rights Commission of Kenya (KNCHR) financed by the Government said that he saw “numerous hood officers, not in uniform, who travel in unmarked vehicles.”
A court order requires that the police be easily identifiable after the accusations that the Plainclothes police fired live rounds to protesters last year.
Knchr also said that the criminal gangs that wielded whips and machetes seemed to be operating next to the police in Nairobi and the city of the Eldoret rift valley.
The local media said there were demonstrations in the cities of Nyeri, Embu and the city of Nakuru next to the Lake, where half a dozen of the police in dispersed protesters of dispersed stone launch.
Police had blocked the main roads that led to Nairobi and restricted traffic inside the city, leaving the streets deserted but for protesters, who arrived on foot. Most schools and at least one shopping center closed in advance of problems.
Maximum alert
Interior Minister Kipchumba Murkomen, who last month described the protests as “terrorism disguised as dissent,” said the government that the government was committed to protecting life and property.
“Our security agencies are on a maximum alert to deal with criminals and other elements of bad intention that can try to infiltrate peaceful processions to cause ravages, chaos or destruction of property,” he said.
The activists join every July 7 to mark the day in 1990 when the opponents of then President Daniel Arap Moi launched an attempt to turn Kenya into a multiparty democracy.
The protest is called “Saba Saba” – “Seven Seven” in Kiswahili – due to the date.
These protests raided the way in which two years later for the first elections of several parts in more than two decades.
The death of Ojwang, 31, a blogger and teacher, has focused public anger, which caused a series of demonstrations last month.
On June 25, according to the commission, 19 people lost their lives throughout the country in demonstrations to protest against the death of Ojwang and mark the first anniversary of demonstrations that culminated in the assault of Parliament.
Six people, including three police officers, have been accused of murder for Ojwang’s death. Everyone has declared ‘not guilty’.
