During July this year, protests across Kenya broke out. The protests consisted of two distinct movements: the resumption of Kenya’s leading opposition party, Azimio’s, street protests and upheaval surrounding the Kenyan government’s proposed tax hikes.
After last year’s August election, the Azimio party’s former presidential candidate, Ralia Odinga, has been claiming that the election was rigged against him and current President William Ruto should not be president. Since March of 2023, Odinga’s supporters have been protesting in the streets of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, but protests were suspended in May for talks with the government. Protests were scheduled to continue on July 19, 2023 when talks with the Kenyan government failed to reach peace. Protests erupted in Nairobi, and became even larger when Kenyans opposing the government’s proposed tax hikes joined and sparked other large protests across the country.
This unfortunately ended up in Kenyan police using extreme violence in an attempt to stop the protests and prevent more from joining. Police reportedly used tear gas and other acts of extreme violence on protesters, resulting in at least 20 protestors being killed during July of 2023.
Since July, more of these cases of excessive police violence in Kenya have surfaced. Around 500 cases of police killings have surfaced since 2019, with many of these cases going unreported. One example of this would be back in January of 2022, when around 37 bodies were discovered in the River Yala in western Kenya. Most of the bodies bore deep cuts all over them and severed fingers, with a few having been suffocated with bags. The case was still ongoing by the end of 2022, but the main suspects were killed on their way to court.
This issue of extreme police violence and corruption of power in Kenya is a very serious problem. The country has recently been undergoing much change, with police responding very harshly to mostly peaceful protests, and facing very little repercussions or push for taking responsibility in the aftermath, since they hold so much power.
