ELEVEN people have been killed nationwide during antigovernment protests in Kenya on the 35th anniversary of a pro-democracy uprising, the country’s police has said.
A statement from the police on Monday added that 52 police officers had been injured.
Police fired live rounds and water cannon at protesters in the capital Nairobi, as hundreds of people demonstrated in the city, with some blowing whistles while they marched amid heavy police deployment.
People rally each year on July 7 to mark the date in 1990 when Kenyans demanded a return to multiparty democracy after years of autocratic rule by then-President Daniel arap Moi.
The protest – called “Saba Saba” meaning “seven seven” in Kiswahili because of the date – has turned into a wider call for President William Ruto to resign.
Al Jazeera’s Malcolm Webb, reporting from Nairobi, said police blocked most of the main roads leading to the city centre, adding that protesters were trying to reach there as clashes happened.
He said that clashes were going on in several roads as well as some other parts of Kenya.
“We started receiving reports from several locations of people with gunshot wounds,” Webb said, adding that ambulances headed to the locations where wounded people were.
Similar demonstrations over corruption, police brutality and unexplained disappearances of government critics had descended into violent clashes last month.
Most schools and at least one shopping mall were shut in anticipation of possible trouble.
“We are not ready to go back [home] because who will fight for our rights then? We will be here till evening,” Francis Waswa, a construction worker, told Reuters news agency.
Monday’s event came as young Kenyans are once again engaging in protests that also saw looting and violence, leaving dozens dead and thousands of businesses destroyed.
Protesters accuse the authorities of paying armed vandals to discredit their movement, while the government has compared the demonstrations with an “attempted coup”.
The government is committed to protecting life and property during protests, Interior Minister Kipchumba Murkomen said on his X account on Sunday.