Police murdered 23 tax protesters, kidnapped 22, wounded 300 in Kenya: Amnesty International
Human rights organisation, Amnesty International, says Kenyan police, during an attack on anti-Finance Bill protesters, killed 23, kidnapped 22 and left 300 persons injured.
“We have recorded 23 deaths caused by police shootings nationwide,” Amnesty International said in a statement on Wednesday. “There were over 50 arrests, 22 abductions and over 300 injuries.”
The human rights organisation said police continued shooting and killing of unarmed citizens into the night on Tuesday, many hours after the protests ended.
“The police shot young, unarmed protesters outside parliament, with the shootings and killings going into the night. Reports show that police shot several people in Githurai in Nairobi—one over 40 times—between 10 p.m. and 1 a.m., way after the protest ended,” Amnesty International said.
The Finance Bill, which proposes taxing cars, phones, bread, sanitary pads, and other commodities, sparked nationwide protests on Tuesday. Police opened live rounds on protesters in Nairobi to quell the demonstrations.
In a live broadcast Tuesday night, President William Ruto labelled anti-tax protests “treasonous events.”
Prior to his address, Aden Bare Duale, Kenya’s cabinet secretary for defence, deployed Kenyan Defence Forces to join forces with the police to crush protests.
On Wednesday, however, Mr Ruto refused to assent to the controversial bill, announcing its withdrawal to placate citizens who have remained on the streets defying police’s brutal clampdown.
“Listening keenly to the people of Kenya who have said loudly that they want nothing to do with this Finance Bill 2024, I concede and, therefore, I will not sign the 2024 Finance Bill, and it shall subsequently be withdrawn,” Mr Ruto said in a live broadcast on Wednesday.
But despite Mr Ruto’s withdrawal of the Finance Bill proposed on Wednesday, Kenyans have mobilised for a one million people march to shut down the country on Thursday.
The international community, the U.S., UK, Canada, Belgium and others, in a joint statement, expressed concerns over Tuesday’s killing of protesters by Kenyan police.
Since he assumed office in 2022, Mr Ruto has imposed taxes in a bid to settle Kenya’s national debt of about $80bn and reduce borrowings.
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