Over 60 people killed in Kenya's deadly protests, Amnesty says

NAIROBI, Kenya - Police in Kenya used excessive force by opening fire at peaceful protesters who breached parliament during anti-government demonstrations over the punitive taxation and expenditure laws, Amnesty International confirmed, adding that close to 64 people died.

The police engaged youthful protesters who called for the dropping of the Finance Bill as they mounted pressure on legislators close to three months ago, triggering the devastating shooting that left many dead and others nursing life-threatening injuries.

The protests forced Kenya's president William Ruto to dissolve his cabinet besides discarding the Finance Bill 2024 which had footprints of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that caused jitters from among Kenyans due to taxation measures.

"The day saw the use of officers without identity badges, uniforms or vehicles marked as police cars actively shooting at protesters and arresting others", Irũngũ Houghton, Amnesty's Kenya director, told Reuters as the rights group published a press release detailing its reconstruction of the events.

At the time of releasing the report, Kenya Police had not responded to questions from Amnesty International. This marked Ruto's biggest crisis as the president as he was forced to come up with a new cabinet, removing quite a number of his close friends.

The Bill was passed by parliament on June 25th and this was followed by a deadly bloodbath outside parliament, the first in Kenya's history. President William Ruto was forced to call the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) into action.

The rights group said its reconstruction of the day's events was conducted with five partners and based on interviews with 23 witnesses and analysis of dozens of videos and photographs. Subsequent protests followed in July leading to mass destruction of property in Nairobi.

As unarmed demonstrators entered parliament, men in civilian clothes were "seen on camera firing rifles and handguns towards the crowd and in the air", Amnesty said. "Researchers counted at least 45 shots fired within 56 seconds."

Three witnesses saw at least six bodies of protesters who they believed were shot dead at the parliament complex, the rights group said.
"I saw my friend going down," said one person interviewed for the report, whose name was withheld. "He was shot."

Amnesty's report said images showed groups of men in civilian clothes carrying weapons and working alongside the police, Reuters reports.

Amnesty also said Kenyan police that day unlawfully fired tear gas and beat and arbitrarily detained peaceful demonstrators, while some protesters threw back tear gas canisters at officers, hurled stones, broke windows, and took flags, the report further read.

GAROWE ONLINE