Kenya protests live: Police fire tear gas as crowds call for Ruto to resign
- Police in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, have used tear gas to disperse antigovernment protesters calling on President William Ruto to step down.
- Protest organisers have called for a “total shutdown” of the country.
‘Heavy stench of teargas’
Demonstrators have been gathering here at the City Center, some holding Kenya’s flag and placards.
They have been trying to gather but police fired tear gas even to the smallest group of people – it’s clear they don’t want any form of protests.
There is a heavy stench of teargas, nonetheless demonstrators keep trying to come back.
These are mostly peaceful protesters, but the police seem they don’t want them here at all.
It looks like they have been firing blank rounds.
What’s the latest?
- Police in central Nairobi have used tear gas as demonstrators shouted slogans calling for Ruto to resign, Al Jazeera reporters said.
- Youths armed with clubs stood guard outside their businesses in the capital’s central business district, the epicentre of the previous antigovernment rallies.
- In Kitengela, a town on the southern outskirts of the capital, some 200 protesters burned tyres and chanted “Ruto must go” and “Stop killing us”, according to Reuters journalists.
- Demonstrators in the coastal city of Mombasa marched waving palm fronds, footage from Kenyan media showed.