Kenyan riot police fired tear gas at protesters in Nairobi on Tuesday, as demonstrations erupted in cities nationwide demanding President William Ruto’s resignation. This followed a week of deadly clashes over anti-tax protests.Read More
Clouds of tear gas drifted over downtown Nairobi as protesters set fires on Waiyaki Way, the city’s main thoroughfare, and hurled stones at police in the central business district.
Outside the capital, hundreds of protesters in Mombasa, Kenya’s second-largest city on the Indian Ocean coast, marched in high spirits. They waved palm fronds, blew plastic horns, and beat drums, all while chanting, “Ruto must go!”
President Ruto, now confronting the most severe crisis of his nearly two-year tenure, is squeezed between the pressures from lenders like the International Monetary Fund to reduce deficits and a struggling populace grappling with the soaring cost of living.
Members of the protest movement, which has no official leaders and primarily organizes via social media, have rejected Ruto’s calls for dialogue, even after he withdrew the proposed tax increases that sparked the demonstrations.
People are dying on the streets, and all he talks about is money. We are not money. We are people. We are human beings,” protester Milan Waudo told Reuters in Mombasa. “He needs to care about his people because if he can’t, then we don’t need him in that chair.
Protests also erupted in Kisumu, Nakuru, Kajiado, Migori, Mlolongo, and Rongo, as shown by images broadcast on Kenyan television. In the southwestern town of Migori, protesters set tyres on fire.
Since June 18, dozens of Kenyans have been killed in demonstrations and clashes with police, most of them shot by officers last Tuesday when some protesters attempted to storm parliament to prevent lawmakers from voting on the tax increases.
Angered by the deaths—at least 39 according to the government-funded Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR)—many are now demanding President Ruto’s resignation.
We are determined to push for the president’s resignation,” said activist Ojango Omondi in Nairobi. “We hope for a peaceful protest and minimal casualties, if any.
The authorities have called for calm. “It’s a beautiful day to choose patriotism, peace, order, and the sanctity of our nationhood,” State House communications director Gerald Bitok wrote on X on Tuesday, adding in Swahili: “Violence is not patriotism.”
The protests, initially sparked by outrage over nearly $2.7 billion in proposed tax hikes, have evolved into a nationwide movement against corruption and misgovernance.
In response to the withdrawal of the tax plans, Ruto has directed the treasury to find ways to cut spending to fill the budget gap and indicated that more borrowing will be necessary.
Veteran anti-corruption activist John Githongo told Reuters that despite Ruto’s addresses to the nation and the media, “there isn’t an indication that he wants to take action” on protesters’ demands, including the dismissal of corrupt officials. “There hasn’t been any indication by the government that they are going to take the calls to deal with corruption seriously,” he said.
The protests were mostly peaceful until last Tuesday when some demonstrators briefly stormed parliament and set part of it ablaze, prompting police to open fire. Ruto has defended the police actions, blaming the violence on “criminals” who hijacked the demonstrations.
