The Police on Friday tear-gassed Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga’s convoy even as rights groups condemned ‘arbitrary arrests’ during anti-government protests over a cost-of-living crisis and a number of controversial tax hikes.
Africa Today News, New York gathered that tear gas was fired on Odinga’s motorcade after he addressed a mass rally in the capital Nairobi.
Police took similar action to break up protests in the Indian Ocean port city of Mombasa and Kisumu, an opposition stronghold on Lake Victoria in western Kenya.
Eyewitnesses said they saw police making several arrests in Nairobi, with security tightened for the latest round of protests called by Odinga this year against the policies of President William Ruto’s government.
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At the rally, Odinga announced plans to collect 10 million signatures in a bid to remove his arch-rival from office.
The 78-year-old lost the closely fought August 2022 election to Ruto and has repeatedly denounced the poll as ‘stolen’.
‘Kenyans elected leaders to parliament and they have betrayed them,’ he said to cheers. ‘Ruto himself who took over power illegally has betrayed Kenyans.’
Meanwhile, Odinga’s Azimio alliance had called for the protests over the impact of the new taxes on Kenyans already suffering economic hardship and soaring prices for basic necessities.
Africa Today News, New York recalls that sometime last week, Ruto had signed a finance bill that is expected to generate more than $2.1 billion for the government’s depleted coffers and help repair the heavily indebted economy.
The Finance Act according to expert is one that provides for new taxes or increases on a range of basic goods such as fuel and food and mobile money transfers, as well as a controversial levy on all tax-paying Kenyans to fund a housing scheme.