Tear gas, stones and flames as violence erupts in Kenya and protesters call for president's ouster
Riot police fired tear gas grenades and charged at stone-throwing protesters in downtown Nairobi and across Kenya on Tuesday.
Riot police fired tear gas grenades and charged at stone-throwing protesters in downtown Nairobi and across Kenya on Tuesday in the most widespread unrest since at least two dozen protesters died in clashes a week ago.
The nationwide demonstrations signaled that President William Ruto had failed to appease a spontaneous youth protest movement, despite having abandoned plans for tax rises that triggered the unrest last week.
Tuesday’s demonstrations began in ebullient mood but turned more violent as the day wore on. In Nairobi’s downtown business district, police wearing helmets and carrying shields and wooden clubs charged at the protesters, and tear gas bombs exploded in the crowds.
A kiosk was set ablaze in the center of a street. Medics tended to a youth who lay on the pavement with a bloody hand. Police bundled other youths into the bed of a pickup truck.
Outside the capital, hundreds of protesters marched through Mombasa, Kenya’s second largest city, on the Indian Ocean coast. They carried palm fronds, blew on plastic horns and beat on drums, chanting “Ruto must go!”
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