The news
NAIROBI – Protesters stormed the Kenyan parliament in Nairobi on Tuesday, pushing past a heavy police cordon as lawmakers voted in favor of an unpopular finance bill that included a series of tax hikes. Part of the parliament building was set on fire and demonstrators ventured into some chambers of parliament as police struggled to gain control.
Police fired live rounds outside parliament in an attempt to stop the demonstrators. Amnesty International reported that at least five people were killed and dozens injured in the protests. There has now been at least one credible report of an internet disruption in Kenya. The protests were mainly organized by young Kenyans through social media platforms.
A series of abductions of several social media influencers and mobilizers involved in the youth-led protests is also fueling public anger against President William Ruto’s government. Amnesty International said in a statement on Tuesday that 21 Kenyans had been illegally abducted or disappeared by “uniformed and non-uniformed officers” over the past five days in connection with the protests.
“It is unthinkable that law enforcement officers are the perpetrators of illegalities and we will expose and take action against these rogue criminal elements who are laying waste to our police force,” said Faith Odhiambo, President of the Law Society of Kenya (LSK). Tuesday.
Knowing more
The storming of parliament was considered a milestone for the protest movement, which had #OccupyParliament as one of its main calls. The protests have spread to cities and towns across the country, including Ruto’s political strongholds of Eldoret and Kericho in the Rift Valley.
Ruto had said on Sunday that he was ready to address the protesters, most of whom are Generation Z and millennial Kenyans. However, police crackdowns and kidnappings have put him on a collision course with protesters who accuse him of hypocrisy.
“I am very proud of our young people… they came forward peacefully and I want to tell them that we are going to engage them,” Ruto said in his first public comments on the protests.
The view from Haiti
As images of Kenyan police grappling with unarmed protesters circulate around the world, Haitian human rights groups have raised concerns about Kenya’s deployment in Haiti. Their specific concern is the reports of police brutality observed during the Kenyan protests. The Movement Unforgettable Dessalines Jean Jacques (MUDJJ) wrote to the United Nations last week to express concern that police behavior in dealing with domestic protests could be a harbinger of the use of similar tactics in Haiti.
