“…We don’t need him in this chair.”
-Kenyan riot police fired tear gas at protesters in Nairobi on Tuesday and demonstrations broke out in other cities across the country demanding the resignation of President William Ruto, after a week of deadly clashes during anti-tax protests.
Clouds of tear gas filled downtown Nairobi after protesters set fire to Waiyaki Way, the main road through the centre of the capital, and threw stones at police in the central business district.
Outside the capital, hundreds of protesters marched in a heated atmosphere in Mombasa, Kenya’s second city on the Indian Ocean coast, carrying palm leaves, blowing plastic horns and beating drums as they chanted “Ruto must go.”
Mr Ruto, facing the most serious crisis of his nearly two-year presidency, has been caught between demands from donors such as the International Monetary Fund to cut deficits and a beleaguered population reeling from soaring living costs.
Members of the protest movement, which has no formal leadership and organises mainly through social media, have rejected Mr Ruto’s calls for dialogue, even after he backed down from proposed tax increases that sparked the protests.
“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,” protester Milan Waudo told Reuters in Mombasa. “He needs to care about his people because if he can’t do that, we don’t need him in this chair.”
Other protests took place in Kisumu, Nakuru, Kajiado, Migori, Mlolongo and Rongo, according to images broadcast by Kenyan television. In the town of Migori in the southwest of the country, protesters set fire to tires.
Dozens of Kenyans have been killed in protests and clashes with police since June 18, most of them shot dead by police last Tuesday when some protesters tried to storm parliament to prevent lawmakers from voting on tax increases.
Angry at the deaths – at least 39 according to the government-funded Kenya National Human Rights Commission (KNHCR) – many people are calling for Mr Ruto to resign.
Similar articles
