Headline

You Can’t Kill All Of Us,’ Kenya Protesters Vow To March Again

Published

1 year ago

June 26, 2024

Kenyan protest organisers called Wednesday for fresh peaceful marches against deeply unpopular tax hikes, as the death toll from nationwide demonstrations climbed to 22, a state-funded rights body said, vowing an investigation.

Tensions sharply escalated Tuesday, as police opened fire on demonstrators who stormed parliament after the mainly youth-led rallies began mostly peacefully last week with thousands marching across the country against the tax increases.

The unprecedented scenes left parts of parliament ablaze and gutted and hundreds of people wounded, shocking Kenyans and prompting President William Ruto’s government to deploy the military.

On Tuesday afternoon, parliament passed the contentious bill containing the tax hikes, which must be signed by Ruto to become law.

But demonstrators vowed to hit the streets again Thursday as they called for the bill to be scrapped.

“Tomorrow we march peacefully again as we wear white, for all our fallen people,” protest organiser Hanifa Adan said on X.

“You cannot kill all of us.”

Demonstrators shared “Tupatane Thursday” (“we meet Thursday” in Swahili), alongside the hashtag #Rejectfinancebill2024 on social media.

“The government does not care about us because they shot us with live bullets,” Steve, 40, who was at the parliament Tuesday, told AFP.

Ruto “victimised innocent people”, he said, adding he would march on Thursday: “I expect more violence and chaos.”

Roseline Odede, chairwoman of the state-funded Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, said “we have recorded 22 deaths”, adding that they would launch an investigation.

“This is the largest number of deaths (in) a single day protest,” she said, adding that 19 people had died in the capital Nairobi.

“We have over 300 injured in our records and over 50 arrests,” she added.

Earlier, Simon Kigondu, president of the Kenya Medical Association, said he had never before seen “such level of violence against unarmed people.”

An official at Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi said Wednesday that medics were treating “160 people… some of them with soft tissue injuries, some of them with bullet wounds”.

– ‘Violence and anarchy’ –

In posts online, protest organisers shared fundraising efforts to support those hurt in the demonstrations.

Ruto warned late Tuesday that his government would take a tough line against “violence and anarchy”, likening some of the demonstrators to “criminals”.

“It is not in order or even conceivable that criminals pretending to be peaceful protesters can reign terror against the people, their elected representatives and the institutions established under our constitution and expect to go scot-free,” he said.

Shortly before his address, Defence Minister Aden Bare Duale announced that the army had been brought in to tackle “the security emergency” in the country.

A heavy police presence was deployed around parliament early on Wednesday, according to an AFP reporter, the smell of tear gas still in the air.

A policeman standing in front of the broken barricades to the complex told AFP he had watched the scenes unfold on TV.

“It was madness, we hope it will be calm today,” he said.

– ‘Didn’t leave anything’ –

In the central business district, where the protests have been concentrated, traders surveyed the damage.

“They didn’t leave anything, just the boxes. I don’t know how long it will take me to recover,” James Ng’ang’a, whose electronics shop was looted, told AFP.

Ruto’s administration has been taken by surprise by the intensity of opposition to its tax hikes.

And while the rallies — mostly led by young, Gen-Z Kenyans — have been largely peaceful, tensions rose sharply Tuesday afternoon when officers fired at crowds near parliament.

Demonstrators then breached parliament barricades, ransacking the partly ablaze complex, with local TV showing burnt furniture and smashed windows.

AFP journalists saw three people bleeding heavily and lying motionless on the ground.

– Cost of living –

The unrest has alarmed the international community, with more than 10 Western nations including the United States saying they were “especially shocked by the scenes witnessed outside the Kenyan Parliament”.

Rights watchdogs have also accused the authorities of abducting protesters.

The police have not responded to AFP requests for comment.

Long-running grievances over the rising cost of living spiralled last week as lawmakers began debating the bill containing the tax hikes.

The cash-strapped government says the increases are needed to service the country’s massive debt of some 10 trillion shillings ($78 billion), equal to roughly 70 per cent of Kenya’s GDP.

The treasury has warned of a gaping budget shortfall of 200 billion shillings, following Ruto’s decision last week to roll back some of the most controversial tax hikes.

While Kenya is among East Africa’s most dynamic economies, a third of its 52 million population live in poverty.

AFP

Up Next

Kenya Anti-tax Protests Death Toll Hits 13

Don't Miss

Five Killed During Kenya Anti-tax Protests

Comments

Headline

UK Police Arrest Asylum Seeker Sex Offender Mistakenly Freed

Published

21 hours ago

October 26, 2025

Editor

The UK police on Sunday arrested an Ethiopian asylum seeker and convicted sex offender, whose crimes had sparked anti-immigration protests, after he was accidentally released from prison in an embarrassing blunder by British authorities.

London’s Metropolitan Police said officers arrested Hadush Kebatu in the north of the capital on Sunday morning, nearly 48 hours after he was mistakenly freed around 30 miles (48 kilometres) away.

Kebatu, 38, had served the first month of a one-year sentence for sexually assaulting a teenage girl and a woman, but was reportedly due to be deported when the Prison Service error occurred on Friday.

His high-profile case earlier this year in Epping, northeast of London, sparked demonstrations in various English towns and cities where asylum seekers were believed to be housed, as well as counter-protests.

Commander James Conway, who oversaw the manhunt for him, said “information from the public” led officers to the Finsbury Park neighbourhood of London, where he was found.

“He was detained by police but will be returned to the custody of the Prison Service,” he added.

Kebatu is now expected to be deported.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Friday he was “appalled” by the “totally unacceptable” mistake that saw him freed rather than sent to an immigration detention centre.

The Telegraph newspaper said he was wrongly categorised for release on licence and handed a £76 ($101) discharge grant.

Police had appealed Saturday for Kebatu to turn himself in, after reports emerged that he had appeared confused and reluctant to leave the prison in Chelmsford, eastern England.

A delivery driver described seeing Kebatu return several times in a “very confused” state, only to be turned away by staff and directed to the railway station.

The driver told Sky News he saw Kebatu outside the jail, asking, “Where am I going? What am I doing?”

“He was starting to get upset, he was getting stressed,” the driver said.

The father of Kebatu’s anonymous teenage victim told the broadcaster that “the justice system has let us down.”

Police arrested the asylum seeker in July after he repeatedly tried to kiss a 14-year-old girl and touch her legs, and made sexually explicit comments to her.

He also sexually assaulted an adult woman, placing a hand on her thigh, when she intervened to stop his interactions with the girl.

He was staying at the time at Epping’s Bell Hotel, where scores of other asylum seekers have been accommodated, and which became the target of repeated protests.

AFP

Headline

Madagascar Revokes Ousted President’s Nationality

Published

22 hours ago

October 26, 2025

Editor

Madagascar’s new government has stripped ousted president Andry Rajoelina of his Malagasy nationality in a decree published Friday, 10 days after he was removed in a military takeover.

According to AFP, the decree means that Rajoelina, who was impeached on October 14 after fleeing the island nation in the wake of weeks of protests, would not be able to contest future election.

The decree published in the official gazette said Rajoelina’s Malagasy nationality was revoked because he had acquired French nationality in 2014, local media reported, as photographs of the document were shared online.

French broadcaster RFI said it had confirmed the decree with the entourage of the new prime minister, Herintsalama Rajaonarivelo, who signed the order.

The decree cited laws stipulating that a Malagasy who voluntarily acquires a foreign nationality loses their Malagasy nationality.

Rajoelina’s French nationality caused a scandal when it was revealed ahead of the November 2023 elections, nearly 10 years after it was granted.

It triggered calls for him to be disqualified but he went on to win the contested polls, which were boycotted by opposition parties.

The 51-year-old politician fled Madagascar after army Colonel Michael Randrianirina said on October 11 his CAPSAT unit would refuse orders to put down the youth-led protest movement, which security forces had attempted to suppress with violence.

Rajoelina said later he was in hiding for his safety, but did not say where.

Randrianirina was sworn in as president on October 14, pledging elections within two years.

Headline

Kamala Harris Hints At Running For President Again

Published

22 hours ago

October 26, 2025

Editor

Former US vice president Kamala Harris said in a British television interview previewed in Saturday that she may “possibly” run again to be president.

Harris, who replaced Joe Biden as the 2024 Democratic presidential candidate but lost to Donald Trump, told the BBC that she had not yet decided whether to make another White House bid.

But the 61-year-old insisted she was “not done” in American politics and that her young grandnieces would see a female president in the Oval Office “in their lifetime, for sure”.

“I have lived my entire career a life of service, and it’s in my bones, and there are many ways to serve.

“I’ve not decided yet what I will do in the future, beyond what I am doing right now,” Harris told the British broadcaster in an interview set to air in full on Sunday.

The comments are the strongest hint yet that Harris could attempt to be the Democratic Party nominee for the 2028 election.

The interview follows the release of her memoir last month, in which she argued it had been “recklessness” to let Biden run for a second term as president.

She also accused his White House team of failing to support her while she was his deputy, and at times of actively hindering her.

AFP