At least 10 people have been killed in protests, according to a state-run human rights body – the latest in a wave of anti-government rallies that began last year.
Police opened fire on demonstrators and earlier on Dr Aron Sikuku, a medic at Eagle Nursing Home in Kangemi on the outskirts of Nairobi, told the BBC that two bodies had been taken to the facility and had died from gunshot wounds.
He said hundreds of protesters had gathered outside his hospital demanding to take away the bodies.
These demonstrations mark the 35th anniversary of the historic Saba Saba (meaning “seven-seven”) protests of 7 July 1990 which launched Kenya’s push for multi-party democracy.
In a scathing report, the state-run Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KHRC) accused the police of using excessive force, as had frequently been the case during the current wave of protests.
“Police operated in plainclothes and unmarked vehicles” on Monday and collaborated with “armed criminal gangs in Nairobi, Kajiado, Nakuru, Kiambu, and Eldoret”, it said. The police have denied previous such accusations.
It added that it had evidence that at least two people had been abducted, as well as reporting 29 injuries and 37 arrests in towns across the country.
Police tried to pre-empt the protests by sealing off central Nairobi.
From early in the morning, hundreds of commuters and overnight travellers were stranded at checkpoints, some more than 10km (six miles) from the city centre, with only a few vehicles allowed through.
Roads leading to key government sites – including the president’s official residence, State House, and the Kenyan parliament – were barricaded with razor wire.
Some schools advised students to stay at home.
But clashes broke out in parts of the capital as demonstrators lit fires and attempted to breach police cordons. Officers responded with tear gas and water cannon.
According to leading Kenyan newspaper, the Nation, demonstrations have spread to 17 counties out of 47.
In Meru county, eastern Kenya, a shopping centre in the town of Makutano was engulfed in flames. Clouds of thick black smoke could be seen coming from the building.
In Ol Kalou town, one protester was shot dead and another who suffered gunshot wounds survived.
In Kamukunji, near the Nairobi venue where the original Saba Saba protests were held, police battled groups of protesters who lit fires on the streets.
A planned appearance by former Prime Minister Raila Odinga was cancelled, with him saying: “The roadblocks all over town which made it difficult for people to make it to Kamukunji” meant he could not “join Kenyans in commemorating this important day”.
But this did not deter him from blasting Kenya’s “rogue police force that shoots people with impunity, a force inherited from the colonialists,” while calling for a national dialogue on reforming the country’s police.
He was arrested after the original Saba Saba protests in 1990 but last year threw his support behind the government.
By mid-morning on Monday, hundreds of overnight passengers remained stranded.
Some long-distance buses were parked in Kabete, about 13km from the city centre, with many passengers who could not afford to pay extra money for motorcycle rides to their destinations remaining there.
Humphrey Gumbishi, a bus driver, said they had started their journey on Sunday evening only to find the police road block in the morning.
“We started travelling at 8:30pm last night… We want the government to engage in a dialogue with Gen Zs so all this can come to an end,” he told the BBC
BBC
