NAIROBI: Riot police patrolled Kenya’s capital Nairobi on Tuesday morning as young activists called for more protests following last week’s deadly clashes.
Members of the protest movement, which has no official leaders and largely organizes via social media, have rejected appeals from President William Ruto for dialogue, even after he abandoned proposed tax hikes.
Infuriated by the deaths last week — at least 39 according to the government-funded Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNHCR) — many are now demanding that Ruto step down.
“We are determined to push for the president’s resignation,” Ojango Omondi, an activist in Nairobi, said. “We hope for a peaceful protest and minimal casualties, if any.”
The protests that started as an online outpouring of anger over nearly $2.7 billion of tax hikes in a proposed finance bill have grown into a nationwide movement against corruption and misgovernance, and become the most serious crisis of Ruto’s nearly two-year-old presidency.
He has been caught between the competing demands of lenders such as the International Monetary Fund, which are urging the heavily-indebted government to cut deficits, and a hard-pressed population reeling from the soaring cost of living.
Ruto has directed the treasury to come up with ways to cut spending to fill the budget gap caused by the bill’s withdrawal, and also said more borrowing will be required.
The protests, which began in mid-June, were mostly peaceful until last Tuesday, when police clashed with demonstrators. Some protesters briefly stormed parliament and set part of it ablaze. The police opened fire, killing many, human rights group said.
The KNHCR said on Monday that 39 people have been killed and 361 people injured since the first protest on June 18.
Ruto has defended the police’s actions, saying they were doing their best under difficult circumstances. He blamed violence on “criminals” who he said had hijacked the demonstrations.
“It’s a beautiful day to choose patriotism. A beautiful day to choose peace, order and the sanctity of our nationhood,” State House communications director Gerald Bitok wrote on X on Tuesday morning, adding in Swahili: “Violence is not patriotism.”
It was not clear to what extent people would respond to the new calls for protests. There were no reports of demonstrations early in the morning.
Shops were opening as usual in downtown Nairobi, the site of the most intense protests last week. Police had erected roadblocks leading to the president’s official residence.
“I think it’s not going to be maandamano (protest) because maybe people are afraid, because some people have been shot,” said Kennedy Otwal, who was walking through downtown.
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Riot police patrol Nairobi as Kenyan activists call for more protests
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Riot police patrol Nairobi as Kenyan activists call for more protests
- Members of the protest movement have rejected appeals from President William Ruto for dialogue
- Protests started as an online outpouring of anger over nearly $2.7 billion of tax hikes in a proposed finance bill
EU diplomats to meet Board of Peace director over Gaza’s future
- Former Bulgarian politician and UN diplomat Nikolay Mladenov has been chosen by Trump to manage the Board of Peace
- Mladenov will meet with the EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and foreign ministers from across the 27-nation block
BRUSSELS: The European Union’s top diplomats are set to meet Monday with the director of the Board of Peace in Brussels after a shaky and controversial embrace of US President Donald Trump’s efforts to secure and rebuild the war-ravaged Gaza Strip.
Nikolay Mladenov, a former Bulgarian politician and UN diplomat chosen by Trump to manage the Board of Peace, will meet the EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and foreign ministers from across the 27-nation bloc. The EU diplomats are also expected to discuss the war in Ukraine and fresh sanctions on Russia.
Just across the Mediterranean Sea from the Middle East, the EU has deep links to Israel and the Palestinians. It now plays a crucial oversight role at the Rafah border crossing, and is the top donor to the Palestinian Authority.
The question of whether to work with the Trump-led board has split national capitals from Nicosia to Copenhagen. The EU is supportive of the United Nations’ mandate in Gaza.
EU members Hungary and Bulgaria are full members of the board, as are EU candidate countries Turkiye, Kosovo and Albania.
Twelve other EU nations sent observers to the inaugural meeting in Washington on Thursday: Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. The EU flag was displayed at the event alongside EU observer and member nations.
European leaders like French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen turned down invitation to join, as did Pope Leo XIV. But von der Leyen did send European Commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Šuica to the meeting in Washington as an observer.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said sending Šuica without consulting the European Council, the group of the bloc’s leaders, broke EU regulations.
“The European Commission should never have attended the Board of Peace meeting in Washington,” Barrot said in a post on X. “Beyond the legitimate political questions raised by the ‘Board of Peace,’ the Commission must scrupulously respect European law and institutional balance in all circumstances.”
“It is in the remit of the Commission to accept invitations,” von der Leyen spokesperson Paula Pinho said Friday.
While the executive is not joining the board, it is seeking to influence reconstruction and peacekeeping in Gaza beyond being the top donor to the Palestinian Authority, she said.
Trump’s ballooning ambitions for the board extend from governing and rebuilding Gaza as a futuristic metropolis to challenging the UN Security Council’s role in solving conflicts. But they could be tempered by the realities of dealing with Gaza, where there has so far been limited progress in achieving the narrower aims of the ceasefire.
Nikolay Mladenov, a former Bulgarian politician and UN diplomat chosen by Trump to manage the Board of Peace, will meet the EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and foreign ministers from across the 27-nation bloc. The EU diplomats are also expected to discuss the war in Ukraine and fresh sanctions on Russia.
Just across the Mediterranean Sea from the Middle East, the EU has deep links to Israel and the Palestinians. It now plays a crucial oversight role at the Rafah border crossing, and is the top donor to the Palestinian Authority.
The question of whether to work with the Trump-led board has split national capitals from Nicosia to Copenhagen. The EU is supportive of the United Nations’ mandate in Gaza.
EU members Hungary and Bulgaria are full members of the board, as are EU candidate countries Turkiye, Kosovo and Albania.
Twelve other EU nations sent observers to the inaugural meeting in Washington on Thursday: Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. The EU flag was displayed at the event alongside EU observer and member nations.
European leaders like French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen turned down invitation to join, as did Pope Leo XIV. But von der Leyen did send European Commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Šuica to the meeting in Washington as an observer.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said sending Šuica without consulting the European Council, the group of the bloc’s leaders, broke EU regulations.
“The European Commission should never have attended the Board of Peace meeting in Washington,” Barrot said in a post on X. “Beyond the legitimate political questions raised by the ‘Board of Peace,’ the Commission must scrupulously respect European law and institutional balance in all circumstances.”
“It is in the remit of the Commission to accept invitations,” von der Leyen spokesperson Paula Pinho said Friday.
While the executive is not joining the board, it is seeking to influence reconstruction and peacekeeping in Gaza beyond being the top donor to the Palestinian Authority, she said.
Trump’s ballooning ambitions for the board extend from governing and rebuilding Gaza as a futuristic metropolis to challenging the UN Security Council’s role in solving conflicts. But they could be tempered by the realities of dealing with Gaza, where there has so far been limited progress in achieving the narrower aims of the ceasefire.
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