According to the nation’s opposition Azimio Coalition, police have kidnapped some of its top officials.
On Wednesday, the opposition in Kenya started a three-day statewide anti-government demonstration. There have been numerous reports of violent skirmishes between the protesters and police. According to the Associated Press, protestors who were marching against tax increases and growing living expenses sustained at least five injuries.
According to local authorities, four demonstrators were hurt in Nairobi’s Mathare neighbourhood. Another guy was hurt in the Kibera slums, where, according to Reuters earlier, some 100 protestors threw rocks at police, who responded by using tear gas.
There were protests in other regions of the nation as well, particularly in the western counties of Kisumu, Kisii, and Migori, where several routes have been blocked off. It is also reported that riot police used tear gas to disperse demonstrators in Nakuru who had blocked highways and started fires.
The city centre has lost a number of businesses, according to the local media.
All primary and secondary day schools in Nairobi, Mombasa, and Kisumu were ordered closed by the government due to the possibility of violence during protests.
According to authorities, at least 15 people died in Kenya after two rounds of protests last week. 53 youngsters were present when tear gas allegedly was thrown into a school property.
William Ruto, the country’s president, who defeated Raila Odinga in an election last August, pledged on Friday that the demonstrations scheduled for this week would be banned. The Azimio party’s leader, Odinga, has insisted that they will go on regardless of whether the government grants a permit.
Odinga’s bodyguard and a number of other Azimio party officials had been detained, according to a statement from the opposition alliance on Wednesday.
“These illegal arrests and/or abductions are a desperate attempt by the illegitimate Ruto regime to paralyse Azimio and its top leaders, and to sabotage the exercise of our constitutional right to peaceful demonstrations,” it said.
Concerns regarding the use of force by Kenyan police against protestors have been raised by human rights organisations and the United Nations.
