Dozens Are Killed as Antigovernment Protests Erupt Across Kenya

At least 31 people were killed and more than 100 others wounded in protests that erupted across Kenya on Monday, a rights group said, as simmering anger against President William Ruto’s government boiled over into clashes between protesters and the police.

The group, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, said on Tuesday that it had also documented at least 532 arrests and two forced disappearances.

The police fired live rounds, rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannons at protesters across the country, the group said. From atop deserted overpasses across Nairobi, the capital, officers blasted tear gas canisters at demonstrators congregating below. Some protesters threw rocks at the police, while others danced.

The demonstrations on Monday occurred on Saba Saba Day, which commemorates the start of Kenya’s multiparty democracy movement in 1990. Saba Saba, which in Swahili means “Seven Seven,” refers to the first pro-democracy rallies held in Nairobi.

In a major show of force, armed police officers barricaded and blocked major roads leading to Nairobi’s central business district, leaving normally crowded streets deserted save for a few determined protesters who traveled on foot.

Armed men in civilian clothes could be seen riding in the back of police vehicles and wielding riot shields.
Emmanuel Maranga, a 45-year-old from Kikuyu, said he went to central Nairobi on Monday to demonstrate in the spirit of the Saba Saba protests.

“We can use this Saba Saba to make a reform in this country,” he said, adding: “I’m here for the youngsters. We have to fight for what our parents started.”

Other protesters expressed anger at recent police killings and said that the government was ignoring pleas for accountability and transparency.

Dominic Mbuthia, 32, condemned Mr. Ruto’s government. “He’s not democratic,” Mr. Mbuthia said of the president. “He doesn’t want to listen to the people. He is a dictator.”

Businesses in the center of the capital were shuttered, and hundreds of men, many who said they had been hired as private security, roamed the streets while swinging thick wooden sticks.

Less than two weeks ago, antigovernment protests erupted across the country, killing at least 16 people and wounding hundreds more. Thousands took to the streets a year after nationwide marches against a contentious tax plan left more than 60 people dead. Anger over the death of a blogger in police custody has also fueled protests against Mr. Ruto’s government.

Charles Munyao, a business owner in Nairobi’s central business district, said on Monday that people looted his shops during demonstrations on June 25. Goons, not protesters, he said, had ruined his inventory, and this time, he added, gesturing to some of the men wielding sticks, he needed his own security.

Mr. Munyao blamed the police, who, he said, have not helped him recover any stolen items or lost profits.
“I lost everything,” he said, pointing to a row of closed stores. “If security had been well coordinated, we would not have lost our shops.”

On Tuesday, the United Nations, which denounced the most recent demonstrations, reported that protests had broken out in 16 counties.

Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman for the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said in a news conference, “It is essential that legitimate grievances at the root of these protests are addressed.”

After the 2024 protests, dozens of people, including activists and medical workers, were abducted, interrogated and tortured, according to human rights monitors and dozens of activists.

The Kenyan police have denied targeting protesters, and Mr. Ruto has said that those who were abducted had been returned to their families.