Protesters condemn police brutality amid deadly demonstrations over the withdrawal of the tax law and call for the president’s resignation.
Police have fired tear gas and water cannons at protesters across Kenya as demonstrations against a controversial finance bill continue even after the president said he would not sign it.
In the capital, Nairobi, riot police fired tear gas and attacked protesters on Tuesday.
Hundreds of protesters marched through Mombasa, Kenya’s second largest city. Some carried palm leaves, blew plastic horns and beat drums, shouting “Ruto must go!”
There were smaller rallies in the cities of Kisumu, Nakuru and Nyeri.
The protests are the most widespread since dozens of demonstrators were killed in clashes a week ago. They appear to signal that President William Ruto has failed to appease the youth-led protest movement, despite abandoning tax hike plans that sparked the unrest last month.
Reporting from Nairobi, Al Jazeera’s Catherine Soi said there was an “ongoing battle” between police and protesters in the city. She said many of the protesters condemned police brutality.
“That was the theme today: protesters say they came here to air their grievances when it comes to police brutality,” she said. “They are very angry and say the police must be held accountable.”
On Monday, Kenya’s National Human Rights Commission said that at least 39 people had been killed in the protests, which began on June 18.
Most of the deaths occurred on June 25, when police opened fire as crowds tried to storm the parliament complex in central Nairobi after lawmakers voted on the bill.
The commission said at least 361 people were injured in the demonstrations, in what it described as “excessive and disproportionate” police force.
Although Ruto withdrew his support for the bill the day after it was passed, the move did little to quell anger among the protest movement.
Many protesters fear the president could still sign the legislation before it officially expires next week.
Protesters say they have little confidence in Ruto
On Sunday, Ruto responded to the protest death toll during a television interview, although he cited a lower number of 19 protesters killed.
The president, who took office in September 2022, defended his decision to call in security forces to respond to what he described as “criminals” and maintained that he had “no blood on his hands”.
The comments sparked anger among protesters, according to Al Jazeera’s Soi.
“People are saying he wasn’t sorry enough,” Soi said. “They also said that the president needs to do more because he is not listening to the people.”
The government had previously said that tax increases were needed to pay a huge public debt of around 10 billion shillings ($78 billion).
In Sunday’s interview, Ruto warned that the government would have to borrow a further $7.7 billion due to the decision to withdraw the tax bill.
“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 news agency in Mombasa.
“He needs to care about his people, because if he can’t care about his people, then we don’t need him in that seat,” Waudo added.
Opposition leader Raila Odinga, runner-up in the last four presidential elections, also took advantage of the protests, despite calls from some protesters for politicians to stay away.
“The youth gave our country its last best chance,” Odinga’s ODM party said in a statement.
“Either we take advantage of it and swim with it, implementing all its demands, or we ignore it and sink the country completely.”
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
