Kenyan Protesters Opposing Tax Hikes Breach Parliament, At Least Five Killed In Police Fire

Kenyan police fired live bullets Tuesday at protesters in Nairobi, leaving “many wounded”, a rights group said, as thousands of demonstrators approached parliament as lawmakers debated contentious tax hike proposals. A rights group said that one protester was killed by Kenyan police near parliament but a report by news agency Reuters put the toll at five. A report by news agency AFP said that a fire has also erupted in the Kenyan parliament complex.

“Human rights observers are now reporting the increasing use of live bullets by the National Police Service in the capital of Nairobi… Safe passage for medical officers to treat the many wounded is now urgent,” Irungu Houghton, the executive director of Amnesty International Kenya, told AFP.

Kenyan protesters breached parliament barricades and entered the complex where lawmakers were debating contentious tax hike proposals that have sparked widespread anger, AFP journalists saw, as police fired live bullets.

Hundreds of protesters broke through barriers erected by the police outside parliament in the capital Nairobi, with police firing live rounds and leaving “many wounded”, according to Amnesty International Kenya.

Kenyan police shot dead one protester near parliament Tuesday, a rights group said, with AFP journalists seeing three people lying motionless on the ground as crowds opposed to proposed tax hikes breached barricades to enter the parliamentary complex where a fire erupted.

The mainly Gen-Z-led rallies, which began last week, have caught the government off guard, with President William Ruto saying over the weekend he was ready to talk to the protesters.

Meanwhile, a “major disruption” hit Kenya’s internet service, global web monitor NetBlocks said, amid a deadly protest against tax hikes in the capital Nairobi.

Parliament approved the finance bill, moving it through to a third reading by lawmakers. The next step is for the legislation to be sent to the president for signing. He can send it back to parliament if he has any objections.

Ruto won an election almost two years ago on a platform of championing Kenya’s working poor, but has been caught between the competing demands of lenders such as the International Monetary Fund, which is urging the government to cut deficits to access more funding, and a hard-pressed population.

Kenyans have been struggling to cope with several economic shocks caused by the lingering impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, two consecutive years of droughts and depreciation of the currency.