•Kenyan Police officer fires tear gas canister towards protesters during a demonstration against tax hikes
A man died after mass demonstrations against proposed tax hikes in the Kenyan capital yesterday, police said, with Amnesty International saying it was a protester who had been shot.
Led largely by Gen-Z Kenyans, the protests began in Nairobi earlier this week before spreading nationwide, galvanised by widespread discontent over President William Ruto’s economic policies as many already grapple with a cost-of-living crisis.
Yesterday’s demonstrations in Nairobi were mostly peaceful, but officers fired tear gas and water canon throughout the day in an attempt to disperse people who gathered to protest near parliament, reports AFP.
“We received information yesterday about the death of a demonstrator, an investigation is under way, our agents are on the ground to investigate,” the Independent Policing Oversight Authority told our correspondent today.
According to a police report seen by our correspondent, a 29-year-old man was taken to hospital in Nairobi’s central district at around 7:00 pm (1600 GMT) “unconscious with a thigh injury” before “succumbing” to his injuries, without giving further details.
Mathias Kinyoda, spokesman for Amnesty International Kenya, told our correspondent that “one demonstrator was shot yesterday in the CBD (central business district) as he was trying to run away from the police”.
Kinyoda said the person had died.
He said that the shooter “was wearing plain clothes but he was accompanying the police”, and called for an investigation.
