Demonstrators react as police use tear gas to disperse protesters during a demonstration against Kenya's proposed finance bill 2024/2025 in Nairobi, Kenya, June 25, 2024., a day after police opened fire on crowds trying to storm the Parliament, leaving at least eight people dead and scores wounded.
An online outpouring of anger over tax increases has swelled into a nationwide protest movement calling for a political overhaul, in the most serious crisis of President William Ruto’s two-year-old presidency. Ruto said in his televised address to the nation late on Tuesday that the debate about the tax measures – which lawmakers passed minutes before parliament was breached – had been “hijacked by dangerous people”.
Last week, protesters had circulated a schedule that called for the occupation of parliament on Tuesday and the occupation of State House, the president’s office and residence, on Thursday.