Kenyan Protesters Demand President Ruto’s Resignation Amid Tear Gas, Stones, and Flames in Nationwide Unrest
Riot police clashed with protesters in Kenya’s capital and across the nation on Tuesday, deploying tear gas and charging at demonstrators who retaliated by throwing stones. This unrest marks the most widespread protests since at least two dozen protesters were killed in clashes a week ago.
The nationwide demonstrations reflect growing dissatisfaction with President William Ruto, who has failed to quell the spontaneous youth protest movement despite retracting proposed tax hikes that initially triggered the unrest last week.
Tuesday’s demonstrations began peacefully but turned violent as the day progressed. In Nairobi’s downtown business district, police equipped with helmets, shields, and wooden clubs charged at protesters, and tear gas bombs exploded within the crowds. A kiosk was set ablaze, and medics attended to a youth with a bloody hand while police detained others and loaded them into a pickup truck.
Hundreds of protesters also marched through Mombasa, Kenya’s second-largest city on the Indian Ocean coast, carrying palm fronds, blowing plastic horns, and beating drums while chanting, “Ruto must go!” Later in the day, Kenya’s NTV reported two people shot in Mombasa, showing images of cars set on fire.
Ruto faces the worst crisis of his nearly two-year presidency, caught between demands from international lenders such as the International Monetary Fund to cut deficits and a populace struggling with the soaring cost of living.
The protest movement, largely organized via social media and lacking official leaders, has rejected Ruto’s appeals for dialogue even after he abandoned his proposed tax increases. “People are dying in the streets and the only thing he can talk about is money. We are not money. We are people. We are human beings,” said Milan Waudo, a protester 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.”
Protests also erupted in Kisumu, Nakuru, Kajiado, Migori, Mlolongo, and Rongo, with images broadcast on Kenyan television showing burning tires in the southwestern town of Migori.
Activists attributed Tuesday’s violence to government infiltrators aiming to discredit the movement and urged protesters to disperse. “Good people. Let’s go home. As usual, the government has let goons take over, loot, and burn property again,” prominent activist Boniface Mwangi wrote on X.
The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNHCR) reports that 39 Kenyans have been killed in demonstrations and clashes with police since June 18, with most deaths occurring on June 25 when officers opened fire near parliament where protesters tried to storm the building.
Despite the violence, some protesters remain determined. “We are determined to push for the president’s resignation,” said activist Ojango Omondi in Nairobi. “We hope for a peaceful protest and minimal casualties, if any.”
Authorities have called for calm, with State House communications director Gerald Bitok writing on X, “It’s a beautiful day to choose patriotism. A beautiful day to choose peace, order, and the sanctity of our nationhood,” and adding in Swahili, “Violence is not patriotism.”
Opposition leader Raila Odinga, who has been the runner-up in the last four presidential elections, supports the protesters despite their calls for politicians to stay out of the movement. “The youth have given our country its last best chance,” Odinga’s ODM party stated. “We either seize it and swim with it by implementing all their demands, or we ignore it and sink the country altogether.”
The protests, initially sparked by nearly $2.7 billion in proposed tax increases, have evolved into a broader movement against corruption and misgovernance. Ruto has instructed the treasury to find ways to cut spending to address the budget gap left by the abandoned tax plans and indicated that more borrowing would be required.
Veteran anti-corruption activist John Githongo told Reuters that while Ruto has addressed the nation and the media, “there isn’t an indication that he wants to take action” on protesters’ demands, including dismissing corrupt officials. “There hasn’t been any indication by the government that they are going to take the calls to deal with corruption seriously,” he said.
The protests had remained mostly peaceful until June 25, when demonstrators briefly stormed parliament and set part of it ablaze, leading police to open fire. Ruto has defended police actions and blamed the violence on “criminals” hijacking the demonstrations.
Source: Reuters
