Fifty-six individuals were hospitalised, most with gunshot injuries, after joining demonstrations in Kenya on Wednesday to commemorate the one-year anniversary of fatal protests over a tax bill, according to a hospital source.
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 witness.
It was not immediately clear who had shot them, and Kenyan police spokesperson Muchiri Nyaga declined to comment on the injuries.
Some protesters clashed with police, and an official at the capital’s main Kenyatta National Hospital said the facility had received dozens of wounded people.
“As at 1600 hours, 56 patients had been admitted at KNH from the protest related injuries. Majority had rubber bullet injuries,” the hospital source reported, adding that no deaths had been reported at KNH.
The source and Kenya’s Citizen Television had earlier reported that at least 10 people were hospitalised.
Large crowds were seen heading in the direction of State House, the president’s office, in scenes broadcast by Kenyan channel NTV before it was pulled off the air after defying an order to stop live broadcasts of the demonstrations.
The Communications Authority of Kenya’s order was condemned by the Kenya Editors Guild, which called it “a gross violation of the Constitution.”
“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 said.
Kenyan broadcaster KTN was also taken off air, it said on its Telegram channel, adding that it would continue to offer live coverage on YouTube, Facebook, and X.
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 in Kenya 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 at 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, said in Nairobi.
The unprecedented scenes on June 25, 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.
(With inputs from Reuters)
