At least 17 people died this Tuesday (25) in Kenya amid serious protests against a new bill that includes tax increases.
The protests, which are being severely repressed by the authorities, culminated in the invasion of the Kenyan Parliament this Tuesday.
Shouting “Ruto must go, Ruto must go!”, in reference to Kenyan President William Ruto and his government, the protesters, mostly young people, managed to enter Parliament through the Senate, despite the harsh police response, in a protest unprecedented in recent Kenyan history.
Protesters set fire to one of the buildings there and some of them even reached one of the cafeterias. The police first tried to disperse them with tear gas and water cannons, but, at around 2:30 pm (local time, 8:30 am Brasília), they started firing ammunition and several bodies were left lying in front of the Parliament, while at least four were removed by the protesters themselves.
According to a source from the Kenya Police Reform Working Group (PRWG-Kenya), which includes organizations such as Amnesty International (AI), to the EFE Agency, at least 14 of the 17 deaths that have occurred so far were recorded during this invasion of Parliament, which is located in the country’s capital, Nairobi.
Likewise, NGOs have so far documented 86 injuries, as well as 52 arrests, at least 43 of them in the Kenyan capital, added the PRWG-Kenya source, who preferred to remain anonymous.
“Despite assurances given by the government that the right to assemble would be protected and facilitated, today’s protests degenerated into violence. Human rights observers and medical professionals have reported several incidents of human rights violations,” PRWG-Kenya lamented in a joint statement.
The platform also stated that it had recorded at least 21 “kidnappings and disappearances” of activists in the last 24 hours, at the hands of “uniformed and non-uniformed” agents, although two of those kidnapped have already been released.
In a statement, the president of the Supreme Court and head of the Kenyan Judiciary, Martha Koome, expressed this Tuesday her “deep concern” about the kidnappings, which she classified as a “direct attack on the rule of law, human rights and constitutionalism ”, and asked that “any criminal action be prosecuted legally”.
In the invasion of Parliament, protesters destroyed furniture, windows and flags, while accusing politicians of being “traitors”, after 195 deputies had preliminarily voted in favor of the bill, against 106 votes against, although it still remains to be seen. the final vote.
With this project, the government intends to raise US$2.7 billion in additional taxes to reduce the budget deficit and state debt. However, protesters maintain that these fiscal measures would push the population into poverty.
The 2024 Finance Law proposed by the government also foresees new taxes, such as the 16% VAT on bread and the 2.5% VAT on vehicles, in addition to the increase in some existing taxes, such as the tax on transfer services. of mobile money.
However, the chairman of the National Assembly’s Finance and Planning Committee, Kimani Kuria, announced last Tuesday, after a meeting chaired by Ruto, before the bill was introduced, that there would be changes and some taxes would be eliminated.
Among other taxes, the VAT that would be charged on bread was eliminated.
Unlike the anti-government protests that Kenya has historically experienced, which were violent and promoted by political leaders, these demonstrations were called by young people from the so-called ‘generation Z’ (born between the mid-1990s and the first decade of the 21st century).
Protests are promoted through social networks such as TikTok, X and Instagram and usually have a peaceful tone.
In the early afternoon, the government called in the Army to help the local police contain the protesters.
“The Kenyan Defense Forces will be mobilized on June 25, 2024 in support of the National Police Service,” Kenyan Defense Minister Aden Duale said in a brief decree published in “The Kenyan Gazette”, the official gazette of Kenya. country.
International reaction
The US and 12 other countries deplored the violence during protests in Kenya. In a statement, they said they were “deeply concerned about the violence witnessed in many parts of the country during the recent protests and we are especially shocked by the scenes witnessed in front of the Kenyan Parliament”.
The declaration was signed by the US, UK, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Netherlands, Estonia, Norway, Sweden, Romania, Belgium and Canada.
“We regret the tragic loss of life and injuries suffered, including from the use of live ammunition,” the statement quoted, warning that “Kenya’s Constitution guarantees the right to peaceful protest.”
The countries called for “restraint on all sides” and encouraged “all leaders to find peaceful solutions through constructive dialogue.”
“All actors have a responsibility to respect, defend, promote and comply with the principles of democracy and the rule of law, in particular by ensuring a proportionate security response,” they said. (With EFE Agency)
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