Kenyan police fired tear gas on Monday in Nairobi at a rally for opposition leader Raila Odinga, who called on his supporters to demonstrate against the government and the effects of inflation.
Odinga kept his call on Sunday to demonstrate against the effects of inflation every Monday and Thursday, hours after the police chief, Japhet Koome, banned the gathering this Monday.
“We are looking for the cost of living to be lowered, so that the prices of cornmeal, gasoline, sugar and school fees will drop” in education, Raila Odinga declared in front of hundreds of his supporters in the popular neighborhood of Kawangware.
Shortly after, the police ignited a gas flame and used water cannons to supply it to change its direction.
In Kibera, the largest slum in the Kenyan city, protesters lit fires and threw stones at security forces.
Demonstrators present in this opposition barricade against the police, hit blanks and shout “we do not have commeale”, the AFP journalist confirmed.
Many Kenyans are struggling to eat because of the high prices of basic products. Inflation reached 9.2% in February according to the government, to which was added the drought in the country, which deprived millions of people of sufficient resources.
During the election campaign last August, President William Ruto presented himself as the defender of the oppressed. However, the supplies of meat and cornmeal were removed from the staple food.
In return, Odinga, defeated in those elections, continues to claim that the election was “stolen from him” and that the current government is “illegitimate”.
“If the leaders don’t talk to each other, we are the ones who lose. They are rich while we sleep fast,” Collins Kibe, a motorcycle taxi driver, told AFP.
On Monday, opposition protests ended in clashes with security forces.
One student was killed by the police, and 31 officers were wounded in the clashes in Nairobi and against fortifications in western Kenya. More than 200 people were arrested, including senior opposition officials.
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