Tag: Ruto

Hundreds of people yesterday took to the streets to call for President William Ruto’s removal, a day after he caved into young protesters’ demands to withdraw the deeply unpopular tax hike bill.

 As protesters headed to Nairobi’s central business district, soldiers were deployed and police in anti-riot gear blocked access along roads leading to Ruto’s office at State House and Parliament of Kenya. Turnout by demonstrators was lower than in previous days after mass protests turned violent, killing more than 20 people, according to human rights groups.

 The Kenya National Commission for Human Rights (KNCHR) said on social media yesterday that it had received credible reports of live fire being used against “civilians protesting across the country, resulting in some deaths”. It did not specify where the alleged incidents took place.

Read Also: Kenya’s Ruto calls storming of parliament national security threat

 Hundreds of protesters also rallied in the port city of Mombasa and the opposition bastion of Kisumu, where some blocked roads and lit fires, TV footage showed. Protests were also reported in Kisii and Migori.

 Seven people – two women and five men – sustained gunshot wounds in Homa Bay Town in western Kenya, Citizen TV news reported. The outlet said they were shot by police while protesting and then rushed to Homa Bay County Teaching and Referral Hospital.

 The youth-led protests kicked off last week and caught the authorities off-guard. Ruto’s government ricocheted between taking a tough line on the unrest and calling for dialogue.

 On Wednesday, the president declined to sign the tax changes into law and withdrew the bill.

 “The people have spoken,” he said, adding that he would seek “engagement with the young people of our nation”.

 But protesters said they would still rally in memory of those killed in the demonstrations, criticising Ruto’s dramatic reversal as a case of too little, too late.

 Al Jazeera’s Zein Basravi, reporting from the protests in Nairobi, said there was an “ebb and flow” on Thursday on the streets, with flare-ups of tension between police and protesters followed by relative calm.

 Young protesters in the capital said they would stop when the president steps down while chants of “Ruto must go, Ruto must go!” could be heard throughout the day.

 “They want a change in the presidential leadership, and they want Parliament absent of what they describe as corrupt parliamentarians who do not have their interests at heart,” Basravi said.

Kasmuel McOure, a Kenyan youth leader and award-winning pianist, told Al Jazeera that Ruto is running a country that has very heavily disgruntled youth”.

“Kenya has been declared a military state. And I know nobody’s talking about that enough. But the army has been given free rein,” he said, adding he would continue protesting until the president “listens to the people of Kenya”.

Kenya’s President William Ruto has called the storming of parliament a national security threat and vowed that such unrest will not happen again “at whatever cost”.

Ruto spoke in a national address hours after part of the parliament building was burned as thousands of protesters against a new finance Bill pushed their way in and legislators fled.

It was the most direct assault on the government in decades.

Journalists saw at least three bodies outside the complex where police had opened fire, and medical workers reported five others killed. Clashes spread to other cities.

“Today’s events mark a critical turning point on how we respond to threats to our national security,” Ruto said, calling the events “treasonous”.

Kenya’s defence minister said the military had been deployed to support police during the “security emergency” and “breaching of critical infrastructure”.

Read Also: Ruto agrees ‘for conversation’ with Kenyan protesters over tax hikes

Protesters had demanded that legislators vote against the Bill imposing new taxes on East Africa’s economic hub, where frustrations over the high cost of living have simmered.

Youth who had voted Ruto into power with cheers for his promises of economic relief have taken to the streets to object to the pain of reforms.

But legislators voted to pass the Bill, then fled through a tunnel as protesters, many of them youth, outmanoeuvred police to enter. The fire was later put out.

At least five people were shot dead while treating the wounded, the Kenya Medical Association and other groups said in a joint statement.

It said more than 30 people were wounded, at least 13 with live bullets.