Kenyan riot police fired tear gas at protesters in Nairobi on Tuesday, as demonstrations erupted in cities across the country demanding the resignation of President William Ruto. This follows a week of deadly clashes over anti-tax protests.
Clouds of tear gas filled downtown Nairobi after protesters set fires on Waiyaki Way, the main road through the capital, and threw stones at police in the central business district. Outside the capital, hundreds of protesters marched in Mombasa, Kenya’s second-largest city on the Indian Ocean coast, carrying palm fronds, blowing on plastic horns, and beating on drums while chanting “Ruto must go!”
The unrest comes in response to police killings of people protesting against the government’s tax hikes. “People are dying on the streets and the only thing he can talk 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 care about his people, then we don’t need him in that chair.”
Ruto, who has been in office for nearly two years, is facing the most serious crisis of his presidency. He is caught between the demands of international lenders such as the International Monetary Fund to cut deficits and a population struggling with the soaring cost of living. Despite his appeals for dialogue and abandoning the proposed tax hikes that triggered the demonstrations, the protest movement, which organizes largely via social media, has rejected his overtures.
Protests also took place in Kisumu, Nakuru, Kajiado, Migori, Mlolongo, and Rongo, as shown in images broadcast on Kenyan television. In Migori, protesters set tires 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 tried to storm parliament to stop lawmakers from voting on the tax increases. The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) reports at least 39 deaths.
“We are determined to push for the president’s resignation,” said Ojango Omondi, an activist in Nairobi. “We hope for a peaceful protest and minimal casualties, if any.”
Authorities have appealed for calm. “It’s a beautiful day to choose patriotism. A beautiful day to choose peace, order, and the sanctity of our nationhood,” State House communications director Gerald Bitok wrote on X, adding in Swahili: “Violence is not patriotism.”
The protests began as an online outcry against nearly $2.7 billion of tax hikes in a proposed finance bill and have grown into a nationwide movement against corruption and misgovernance. Ruto has directed the treasury to find ways to cut spending to fill a budget gap caused by the withdrawal of the tax plans and has indicated that more borrowing will be required.
