Kenya: Police use tear gas to disperse new protests over president’s resignation

NAIROBI, Kenya – Kenyan police used tear gas grenades to disperse protests in Nairobi and several other cities on Tuesday. The protests accused the president of poor governance and called for his resignation even though he fired almost the entire cabinet last week.

Shops in Nairobi remained closed for fear of a repeat of the looting that took place during the demonstrations last week, when protesters stormed parliament and several were killed by police.

Protesters blocked major roads, including the Nairobi-Namanga highway on the outskirts of Nairobi, where they lit bonfires on Tuesday morning. Demonstrations were also reported in the cities of Mombasa, Kisumu and Eldoret.

The protests came five days after President William Ruto fired all but one cabinet minister and promised to form a broad, lean and efficient government in response to protesters’ demands.

The police chief, accused of brutality against the protesters, resigned on Friday, but the protesters insisted they would continue until the president resigned.

On June 18, protests began demanding the dismissal of cabinet ministers for incompetence, corruption and flaunting wealth while ordinary people suffered a cost-of-living crisis. On June 25, protesters stormed parliament after MPs passed a finance bill that would raise taxes. Police opened fire, killing several people.

President Ruto declared that he would not sign the bill after listening to the protesters, but demonstrations continued with calls for his resignation.

Activists who have called on people to join the protests say they are spontaneous and not led or funded by any group.

The Kenyan Human Rights Commission said 39 people have been killed in the protests since June 18 and 32 others have been abducted and are missing.