NAIROBI (Portal) – Protesters threw stones at police in Kenya’s capital and attackers set fire to an office of the president’s party in a western town on Thursday during a third wave of demonstrations organized by his opponents.
Thousands have joined demonstrations called by opposition leader Raila Odinga against the high cost of living and alleged fraud in last year’s vote. The government said the vote was fair, defended its economic record and called for an end to the protests.
Violence also marred Monday’s protests and the first demonstrations the Monday before, prompting pleas for calm from citizen leaders who said they feared a descent into ethnically charged violence.
Vice President Rigathi Gachagua urged protesters to go home on Thursday. “We tell our elder Raila Odinga the only way to get into government is through election.”
Earlier in the day, Odinga drove through Nairobi’s Pipeline district in a convoy with other opposition leaders while hundreds of supporters marched alongside, waving twigs, pots and empty packets of flour.
Steve Odhiambo, a 31-year-old unemployed college graduate, said he was demonstrating against the vote, unemployment and high food prices.
“We want Raila to tell us (to protest) on a daily basis … we will not back down. Even at night – we are very ready,” said Odhiambo. Odinga has called for protests every Monday and Thursday.
The price of 2kg of cornmeal, a staple, rose to 179.98 shillings ($1.36) in February from 134.79 in April 2022.
Kenya’s inflation (KECPI=ECI) rose to 9.2% yoy in February from 9.0% in the previous month, mainly due to food and transport prices.
Protesters have accused President William Ruto of mismanagement, while his supporters have accused Odinga of using anger at rising prices, a global phenomenon, to push for political concessions and a possible role in government.
The pipeline procession was mostly peaceful, said a Portal reporter who followed it, but some threw stones at a police station, prompting officers to fire tear gas.
Odinga said his car was hit by live bullets, a claim Portal has been unable to verify. The national police spokesman did not respond to a request for comment and the Interior Ministry spokesman referred Portal to the police.
In Mathare, a poor neighborhood in Nairobi, protesters used improvised catapults to throw stones at police officers in riot gear, footage on Kenyan television showed.
The offices of Ruto’s United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party were torched in the western city of Siaya, the party’s general secretary Cleophas Malala said.
He blamed Odinga’s followers. Odinga’s spokesman Dennis Onyango accused Malala of “ethnic profiling” and said he assumed the attackers were Odinga supporters because they belonged to his ethnic group.
Siaya District Police Commander Michael Nyaga declined to comment on the incident.
Odinga, who ran for the presidency five times, questioned Ruto’s victory in the August election, but the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the result.
($1 = 132.1000 Kenyan Shillings)
Reporting by Ayenat Mersie; Additional reporting by Humphrey Malalo; Edited by Aaron Ross, Mark Potter and Andrew Heavens
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