The protests against Ojwang’s death in custody coincided with demonstrations already planned in Kenya to mark the first anniversary of an anti-government movement led by youth who call themselves Gen Z.
Those demonstrations a year ago – sparked by opposition to a proposed tax hike and fuelled, in part, by disgust at pervasive police violence – left more than 60 people dead and 20 others missing. Parliament was also stormed.
The protests against Ojwang’s death in custody coincided with demonstrations already planned in Kenya to mark the first anniversary of an anti-government movement.Credit: AP
On Wednesday, a wave of youth-led demonstrations across the country was followed by looting and arson in the capital, Nairobi, and other cities. Kenyan police used live rounds, tear gas and rubber bullets against protesters.
Rights group Amnesty Kenya said 16 people had been killed – all from gunshot wounds. It was not immediately clear who had shot them, and Kenyan police spokesperson Muchiri Nyaga declined to comment on the injuries.
The New York Times reported that at least 400 people were injured in Wednesday’s protests – 83 of them seriously, citing an alliance of grassroots organisations.
“Many of us are being killed with no reason,” said Don Cliff Ochieng, 24, a security guard in Nairobi who said that he was protesting because of the lack of economic opportunities and police brutality. “It is our right to demonstrate.”
Protesters were already upset about police violence.Credit: AP
On Thursday, after a night of looting and arson left buildings smouldering in central Nairobi, shop owners were cleaning up the charred wreckage.
“Look: everything they burnt. So please government, try talking to the Gen Z. Because this happened [because] of Gen Z. So the Gen Z, try to sit down and talk with the government,” Ibrahim Hamisi, whose building was burnt, said.
Shopkeeper Josephine Apondi said “thugs” had looted 2 million shillings ($23,500) worth of phones and electronics from her Nairobi shop.
Kenya’s Interior Minister, Kipchumba Murkomen, has accused protesters of attempting to enact “regime change” and said police had been forced to hold back large crowds who sought to approach parliament and State House, the president’s residence.
Business owners assess the damage to their vandalised merchandise and shops. Credit: AP
“Criminal anarchists” had “unleashed a wave of violence, looting, sexual assault and destruction upon our people”, he said.
But Boniface Mwangi, one of the prominent figures in the protest movement, told Reuters: “The branding of [the] protests as a coup is the government’s attempt to shift attention from the real issue.”
