(Nairobi) A protester was shot dead Thursday evening in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on the sidelines of a rally organized against the government’s draft budget planning to introduce new taxes, we learned on Friday from reliable sources.
The Independent Police Oversight Authority (IPOA) announced in a statement that it had “opened an investigation this morning (Friday)” to determine the circumstances of the death of a man “allegedly following shooting by the police “.
Many demonstrators were on Thursday evening in the Nairobi business center where throughout the day, several thousand young people had gathered to protest against the proposed budget of President William Ruto’s government.
According to a spokesperson for Amnesty International Kenya, Mathias Kinyoda, “a protester was shot and killed in the CBD (business center, editor’s note) while trying to flee the police.”
“The person who shot was in civilian clothes, but he was accompanying the police,” he stressed.
In a report seen by AFP, Nairobi police said a 29-year-old man was taken to a hospital on Moi Avenue in the center on Thursday around 7 p.m. local time (12 p.m. Eastern time). businessman in the Kenyan capital, “unconscious with a thigh injury” before “succumbing” to his injuries.
No details are given on the nature of the injury and the circumstances of death.
A witness interviewed by AFP accuses the police. “We saw what happened,” he said, saying he was on the second floor of the Union Towers, located on Moi Avenue.
“We could see the police opening fire on the group that was gathered there,” he said: “It was a police officer wearing a baseball cap because he got out of a police vehicle and got into it. ran back up.”
Demonstrations took place Thursday in many towns in Kenya, as part of a protest movement called “Occupy Parliament” launched last week on social networks, outside of any political framework, and which strongly mobilizes young people.
According to several organizations, including Amnesty International Kenya, at least 200 people were injured during the rally in Nairobi on Thursday. The Kenya Red Cross said eight were in serious condition.
Kenyan police have been accused of serious human rights violations in the past.
Demonstrations against the high cost of living, called by the opposition, gave rise to looting and deadly clashes in Kenya last year, killing at least 50 people according to NGOs.
The draft budget is currently under debate in Parliament, with a view to a final vote before June 30.
After an initial demonstration which brought together hundreds of people in Nairobi on Tuesday, the government reversed most of the provisions of the draft budget, notably the introduction of a 16% VAT on bread and a tax on private cars.
But the demonstrators demand the total withdrawal of the text.
They also denounce the government’s desire to compensate for the announced withdrawal of taxes with other fiscal measures (increase in taxes on fuel and exported products in particular).
This risks, according to them, reducing their purchasing power, already burdened by last year’s increases in income tax and health contributions and the doubling of VAT on gasoline.
For the government, these tax measures are necessary to restore room for maneuver to the country, which is heavily in debt.
Kenya, one of East Africa’s fastest growing economies, recorded year-on-year inflation of 5.1% in May, with food and fuel prices rising by 6.2% respectively. % and 7.8%, according to the Central Bank.
