Kenya – Anti-government demonstration: police fire live ammunition

In Kenya, June 25 is a day of historic mobilization: mobilization against the 2024 finance bill, which enters third reading today in the Senate.

Kenya is in the grip of an unprecedented anti-government movement led by the country’s youth. Hundreds of protesters broke through a police checkpoint on Tuesday, June 25. Kenyan police fired live ammunition on Tuesday, June 25, at protesters opposing a proposed new government tax, Amnesty International Kenya announced, citing “numerous injuries.”

In addition, as AFP noted on site, demonstrators entered the Parliament grounds in Nairobi. “Despite assurances from the Kenyan government that the right to assembly would be respected, human rights observers report the increasing use of live ammunition by the national police in the capital Nairobi (…) It is now urgent that doctors are given safe passage to treat the many wounded”said Amnesty International Kenya Executive Director Irungu Houghton.

Demonstrations were also held, without any police opposition, in several other cities in the country, notably in the opposition strongholds of Mombasa (east) and Kisumu (west), in Eldoret (west), a large city in the Rift Valley. , President William Ruto’s home region, Nyeri (southwest) and Nakuru (central), according to local media. The movement called “Occupy Parliament” was launched on social networks shortly after the presentation to Parliament on June 13 of the 2024-2025 budget providing for the introduction of new taxes, including a 16% VAT on bread and an annual tax of 2.5% on private vehicles.