At least 30 people were killed Tuesday during anti-government protests in Kenya, Human Rights Watch said Saturday, the heaviest toll reported from a day of protests that turned bloody.
“Firing directly into the crowd without justification, including when demonstrators are trying to flee, is completely unacceptable under Kenyan and international law”said Otsieno Namwaya, HRW associate director for Africa, in a statement.
A previous report from the official human rights protection body (KNHRC) reported 22 people killed in the country. The Police Reform Working Group, a group of local NGOs including the Kenyan branch of Amnesty International, claimed to have counted, on the evening of June 25, 23 deaths. “caused by police shooting”.
The authorities have not released any report on the day, which was marked in particular by the storming of Parliament by demonstrators shortly after the deputies voted on a criticized 2024-25 budget project introducing tax increases.
Kenyan President William Ruto during a summit on peace in Ukraine in the Burgenstock station near Lucerne in Switzerland on June 16, 2024 / URS FLUEELER / POOL/AFP/Archives
The day after this deadly day, President William Ruto announced the withdrawal of the draft budget and called for consultation with the youth, at the origin of this protest which then spread across the country.
HRW based its assessment on the “testimonies, information accessible to the public, hospital and mortuary registers”putting the number of deaths at 31.
Its investigators notably saw 26 bodies of demonstrators in different morgues in Nairobi, and other searches “shows that police killed at least three people in Eldoret town, one person in Nakuru and one in Meru”HRW details in a press release.
Like several other NGOs, it accuses the police of having fired live ammunition into the crowd, particularly in front of Parliament, and calls “Kenyan authorities to promptly but credibly and transparently investigate abuses by security forces”.
– Generation Z –
HRW also reports the testimony of a human rights activist claiming that 22 people were killed by “military” in Githurai, about twenty kilometers north of Nairobi.
According to the activist, “eight military officers (…) opened fire on people” et “killed several people, including people who were not participating in the protests”.
Kenyan riot police arrest protesters during a demonstration in downtown Nairobi on June 27, 2024 / Kabir Dhanji / AFP
“When the military stopped shooting at people, we confirmed that there were at least 22 dead”he said, quoted by HRW, adding that “the shooting by the soldiers, joined by the police, resumed at 10:00 p.m. and continued until 11:00 p.m.” .
After two largely peaceful demonstrations on June 18 and 20, the third day of the movement « Occupy Parliament » (“Occupy Parliament”), launched on social networks to oppose the 2024-25 budget project of the government led by President William Ruto providing for the introduction of new taxes, turned into a bloodbath.
This protest strongly mobilized within the “Generation Z” (young people born around the year 2000), before drawing Kenyans of all ages into its wake. The anti-tax slogan has become anti-government, to cries of « Ruto must go » (“Ruto must go”).
This draft budget has crystallized wider discontent among the population, hit by economic difficulties for several years.
William Ruto was elected in August 2022 promising to defend the poorest.
The coffin of Ibrahim Kamau, 19, accompanied by the crowd in the streets of Nairobi, June 28, 2024 / Tony KARUMBA / AFP
Once in power, he took austerity measures, notably increasing income tax and health contributions last year and doubling VAT on gasoline.
For the government, these tax measures are necessary to restore room for maneuver to the country.
Kenya’s public debt stands at around 10 trillion shillings (71 billion euros), or about 70% of GDP.
