Deadly protests against Kenyan corruption and police brutality

When Britain was commemorating 20  years since the 7/7 London terrorist attack by four young jihadist men that murdered 52 people, Kenya they had its own 7/7 anniversary.

I eye-witnessed menacing combat troops-clad police set up roadblocks stopping the public from entering Nairobi’s Central Business District (CBD) on Saba Saba (seven seven) day this month.

It was the 35^th anniversary of bloody nationwide protests on July 7, 1990, when Kenyans, led by Charles Rubia, Kenneth Matiba and others, took to the streets to demand of autocratic president Daniel arap Moi free elections and the approval of multiparty democracy in the previously single party-run East Africa country.

Yearly, peaceful protests are held to mark the historic date when Kenya's constitution was challenged, allowing the formation of other political parties.

More than three decades since then new protestors against the similarly autocratic president William Ruto last year stormed and ransacked the parliament building to halt his swingeing Finance Bill, which aimed to raise taxes and end lifeline fuel subsidies among other things.

Those youthful demonstrators, many of them educated students, became known as Gen-Z [pronounced Zee] and their demands broadened to include an end to the police brutality that had claimed scores of their lives. According to international institutions, more than 40 per cent of Kenya's population live below the national poverty line of $3 a day.

On July 7 this year police admitted to 11 people killed by them and 567 arrests. This has since risen to 23 deaths. A week previously police murdered 16 protestors, some of whom they claimed had rioted and looted in the Central Business District (CBD), an area similar to London’s West End.

Ruto was in London, capital of his country's former colonial ruler, on July 1 to sign a renewal of the multi-million pound Britain and Kenya Strategic Partnership 2025-2030. It's a framework built on the four pillars of trade, climate, technology and security. The aim is for trade to be doubled between the two countries over the five-year period.

One of the most tragic incidents of the most recent Saba Saba involved Julie Njoki, a woman in her 20s, who was arrested on Monday, July 7, during the Saba Saba demonstrations and taken to Nanyuki Police Station in central Kenya. Njoki's aunt, Grace Rene, claimed her niece was brutally beaten by police officers at the station and left unconscious.
 

Her aunt added: "The same people who are meant to protect her left her unconscious." 

According to her family, Julie was taken to the hospital, and a medical report revealed that she had suffered blunt force trauma to the head, consistent with physical assault. The family claims that police delayed treatment and attempted to conceal the extent of her injuries.

“This critical condition was met with delays, carelessness, and silence. By the time real help came, it was too late. We lost Julie. She didn’t deserve to die. No one does,” the aunt continued. ”I’m broken. I’m angry. I’m grieving. How do you jail a Gen Z on Monday and report them dead by Wednesday?”

Julie’s death sparked fresh outrage among Kenyans still reeling from the death in custody of teacher and popular blogger Albert Ojwang at Nairobi Central Police Station a month earlier. He had been a vocal critic of the government, particularly corruption and police brutality, citing a particular senior officer.

Someone captured best the success of the July 7 protest police heavy-handedly prevented from happening in the CBD with their total lockdown when he said: "To prevent protesters from closing roads, disrupting business and causing massive losses, the government has closed roads, disrupted business and caused massive losses."

Businesses, schools, government and all other offices were closed for the day.

Kenyan website Citizen Digital stated pointedly: “The government seems to have shot itself in the foot in a rather pedestrian attempt to curtail movement, block protests, barricade demonstrators and seal off the city.”

Worried over a potential torrent of protesters flooding the streets on Saba Saba, the government pulled out all its might by planting hundreds of heavily armed police officers on major highway arteries, effectively blocking all movement and barricading all roads which led into the CBD.

On a chilly Monday morning, Kenyans witnessed dystopian scenes as the streets of Nairobi remained shockingly empty, with only a few police cars, ambulances and media vans allowed to drive through.

From Tom Mboya Street to Kenyatta Avenue, Biashara Street to Luthuli Avenue, all shops remained shut, as only a few souls strolled by, while police held fort, guarding an empty city with a biting cold piercing through the atmosphere.

One solitary middle-aged man walking towards CBD with me said, without prompting: “Job well done by the police stopping the young people destroy our country. Last time they rioted and looted but the police prevented that from happening today.”

But a taxi driver of the same age I rode with disagreed. He told me: “The voice of the young people must be heard and responded to.”

I heard more people voicing support for the protestors than not. Most were united in their opposition to president William Ruto, who, only in September 2022 was elected promising to improve the lives of working class Kenyans. But commentators say he over-promised and has under-delivered. On top of that, he and his ministers have been accused of enriching themselves while most of the rest of population can barely put food on the table.

His plan to build a 3,000-seater mega church in the ground of State House, where he lives, at the cost of £7m has enraged Christians and people of other faiths alike even though the multi-millionaire says he will personally foot the bill.

On July 7, I saw a convoy of a dozen vehicles drive past with flashing blue lights. It was vice-president crossing the city. A moment later the Japanese ambassador drove past with just three vehicles in his convoy.

Then an unmarked white Subaru SUV approached me and a couple of other media folk on a wide stretch of road. Rather drive around us its driver demanded we get out of his way. I asked who he was. The plainclothed secret police who kill and abduct people, I was told. They’re the feared the “Subaru Boys”. They and the shoot to kill robocop officers enforcing their random lockdown reveal Kenya as a police state. But the rest of the world turns a blind eye. If it were Hong Kong, where pro-West protestor caused widespread criminal damaged, there’d be an outcry in support of them.

A Kenyan journalist working for a German TV station told me: “William Ruto travels the world and the red carpet is rolled out for him in Washington, Paris and London. But no one protests that he has the blood of his young on his hands. Where are the international human right campaigners mobilising against him?”

The journalist reckoned it was because Ruto is a puppet of the West doing their bidding economically. Kenya is a major tourist destination and also does other lucrative business with the West.

On July 7 this year the general consensus was that Gen-Z, which prides itself on being leaderless to avoid its activists being victimised by the authorities, had forced the government to cave in and, sensing a humiliating beating from the people, who themselves have normally shut down businesses and crippled the economy on major protest days, Kenya’s corrupt leaders ended up inadvertently worsening a premature outcome. This created a crisis that could, potentially, have been avoided.

Someone on X wrote: "Hear me out. And correct me if I'm wrong. Today was not going to be even that massive. The hype wasn't all that. But the government fell for the trap. And now they've crippled the city themselves, without the help of protesters."

Someone else commented: "This is the best form of protest. Civil disobedience. Now the police are protesting. In fact, this is a public holiday formula unlocked! All we need to do is whisper “maandamano” [demonstration] and boom, holiday activated!" 

Eric Gachoka also had something to say, writing: "Wait a minute, they said it’s a Normal work day but no one can get into town? The Genz’s [Generation-activist Hanifa Adan satirically asked, "Why are the police protesting and blocking roads everywhere disrupting people’s businesses anGachagua?"

Allan Kavati also shared an insightful perspective, saying, "No business looted. No car burnt. No Kenyan shot. No police officer throwing teargas. No goons walking around with clubs. I think Saba Saba was a Success at 8.00 am. Congratulations Ruto, you protested against yourself!"

The ludicrous move by the police has also been widely welcomed by Kenyans, as they celebrated the blockage of movement as a successful “Stay At Home” tactic which will save lives and energy while at the same time driving home an important political point about the urgent need for change.

Hanifa Adan, again, wrote: "Guys, this is a brilliant way of protesting. The police getting rained on [it was raining] as they block every road while we stay at home warming our beds. Total shutdown and forced holiday executed by the the state!"

Africanews website reported: “Barely two years into his presidency and Kenya’s William Ruto is already facing calls for him to leave - summed up in the slogan “wantam”, or one term. Protesters stick their index fingers in the air, saying Ruto must vacate the presidency when his term expires in 2027.

For others who want him gone only three years after he was elected, even that's a long time.

Kenya's fifth president became a remarkably unpopular leader barely two years into his presidency after proposing aggressive tax measures that many saw as a betrayal of his campaign promise to support working-class people.

Ruto said new taxes were necessary to keep the government running. He survived the tax-protest movement last year as thousands of young people took to the streets in an unsuccessful attempt to force his resignation.

In the most violent incident that left at least 22 people dead, protesters ransacked and attempted to burn down the parliamentary building in the capital, Nairobi. Ruto said that would never happen again saying he had ordered police to shoot on sight any such protestors in the future.

Ruto now faces a new wave of demonstrations provoked most recently by the death of blogger Albert Ojwang. Many Kenyans saw the incident as symptomatic of bad rule in Kenya, with the authoritarian president firmly in control of parliament and the brutal security forces.

Protesters say they want to rid the government of corruption, marked by theft of public resources and the seemingly extravagant lifestyles of politicians. Some disparage Ruto as “Zakayo,” referring to the biblical tax collector Zacchaeus, and others call him “mwizi," Kiswahili for thief.

The demonstrators also are inflamed by what they see as incessant deal-making under Ruto, who last year was forced to terminate an agreement worth an estimated $2 billion that would have seen Kenya's main airport controlled by the Indian conglomerate Adani Group. That deal, which became public months after security forces violently quelled anti-tax protests, reignited public discontent and reinforced a view of Ruto as unrepentant and unwilling to listen to his people.

To a degree rare for an African leader, Ruto constantly speaks about efforts to expand the tax base. His negotiations for new debt with the International Monetary Fund have drawn criticism from those who say proposed reforms will hurt poor people while benefitting politicians and the business class. Last year he told Harvard Business School’s Class of 2025 that he wasn’t going to preside over “a bankrupt country”.

Peter Kairu, a 21-year-old student said he didn't expect the government to address issues of corruption and nepotism raised by the protesters. “"Until we ourselves we decide to become the change we want," he said. Eileen Muga, who is unemployed in Nairobi, expressed safety concerns about disappearing “the moment you say something about the government."

Kipchumba Murkomen, Ruto's interior minister, has spoken forcefully against protesters, saying they will be dealt with harshly. After thousands of people marched in Nairobi last month to mark the anniversary of the previous year's anti-tax protests, Ruto said he was not going anywhere, warning if there was no Kenya for him, that also would be the case for others.

“If we go this route, we will not have a country,” he said of the protest movement. “Yes, and the country does not belong to William Ruto. The country belongs to all of us. And if there's no country for William Ruto, there's no country for you.”

The speech was characteristic of Ruto and underscored why many Kenyans are afraid of him even as they try to challenge him. Years ago, as Kenya's deputy president, ruthless Ruto outmanoeuvred his predecessor, Uhuru Kenyatta, under whom he had served for two terms, in a bad-tempered power struggle that president Kenyatta lost. Kenyatta is the son of Kenya's national hero founding president Jomo Kenyatta, so Ruto thwarting him was no mean feat. The task of defeating him will not be easy. But my broadcast journalist colleague commented: "Kenyans are a resilient people and, as our [famed Mau Mau] struggle against the British for independence showed: we will never give up in our fight for justice."