Kenya police fire tear gas on antigovernment demonstrators in Nairobi | Protests News

The ‘Nane Nane’ march, meaning ‘eight eight’ in reference to the date, follows weeks of protests that saw President William Ruto scrap planned tax hikes and overhaul his cabinet.

Kenyan police have fired volleys of tear gas in the heart of the capital Nairobi as small groups of people gathered in renewed protest against embattled President William Ruto.

The “Nane Nane” march, meaning “eight eight” in reference to the date August 8, on Thursday followed weeks of similar pro-reform protests that saw Ruto scrap planned tax hikes and overhaul his cabinet.

Riot police patrolled the streets of the central business district and roadblocks were set up on major arteries. Many shops were shut.

The East African nation, one of the most stable in the region, has been rocked by weeks of sometimes deadly protests against Ruto’s two-year-old administration, mostly led by young Gen Z Kenyans.

In what has been the biggest crisis of his two years in office, Ruto bowed to pressure and shelved the new taxes in June after some demonstrators briefly stormed parliament.

He also fired his entire cabinet apart from the foreign minister last month, a victory for activists and protesters who had demanded sweeping changes.

While Ruto was overseeing the swearing-in of a revamped cabinet on Thursday, just a few kilometres (miles) away, police lobbed tear gas in the capital and detained several people.

But otherwise, the streets appeared largely quiet, with a few people going about their normal business.

Television footage from the Indian Ocean city of Mombasa showed traffic flowing normally and no signs of trouble, and the western lakeside city of Kisumu was also reported to be calm.

Stephens Wanjiku, a 29-year-old fashion stylist, said she had taken to the streets since the demonstrations began in mid-June to demand “good governance and accountability”.

“I have been beaten,” Wanjiku, sporting a bright blue robe, ski goggles and multiple masks, told AFP news agency in Nairobi, saying police brutality should be a “thing of the past, we should not be seeing it in 2024”.

Kenya’s acting Police Inspector General Gilbert Masengeli had warned on Wednesday that “criminals” intended to infiltrate the demonstrations and advised people to stay away from protected zones such as the main international airport and Ruto’s official residence and take precautions in crowded areas.

What started out as peaceful youth-led rallies against controversial proposed tax hikes has ballooned into wider action against Ruto and what many see as profligate government spending and corruption.

More than 50 people have been killed since the protests began, with police accused of using excessive force, sometimes firing live bullets, while dozens of people have gone missing, according to rights groups.