Chaos in Kenya: TikTok-Fueled Protests Turn Deadly as Protesters Storm Parliament, Police Tear-Gas Cathedral

At least five people were killed and 30 wounded in Kenya on Tuesday when anti-tax protesters attempted to storm Parliament and police responded by firing live ammunition.

Kenyans have been protesting for weeks against a proposed finance bill packed with tax increases, including taxes on everything from bread to car insurance. Some of the more onerous provisions of the bill were dropped amid the protests, but President William Ruto insisted major tax increases were still necessary to balance the budget, while protesters vowed to keep marching until the entire bill was withdrawn.

Chaos erupted in Nairobi on Tuesday as lawmakers voted to pass the finance bill. Thousands of protesters surged against the parliament building, parting only to allow legislators who voted against the bill to depart from the premises in peace.

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The protesters managed to force their way past police cordons and enter the parliament building. Fires broke out in parliament and in the nearby Nairobi City Hall. Heavy clouds of tear gas wreathed the buildings, and then shots rang out. 

At least five fatalities were reported, although some accounts said ten or more people could be dead from gunshot wounds. Journalists on the scene reported that most of the injured appeared to be young men. 

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Nairobi’s Kenyatta National Hospital reported receiving 45 injured demonstrators, seven of them female. One of the activists struck by tear gas on Tuesday was Auma Obama, the 64-year-old sister of former U.S. President Barack Obama. 

“I’m here because, look at what’s happening. Young Kenyans are demonstrating for their rights. They are demonstrating with flags and banners,” Obama said, just as tear gas enveloped her live on camera during a CNN interview.

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Kenya Red Cross said on Tuesday that its vehicles were attacked, and some of its staffers and drivers were injured, while it tried to provide “live-saving interventions” to the wounded. 

Kenya Red Cross did not identify the attackers, but other reports from the scene said some protesters were attacking ambulances because they thought members of parliament who voted for the tax bill were being smuggled inside of them. Many of the pro-tax legislators reportedly huddled in the basement of the parliament building for safety and were later evacuated through a tunnel.

President Ruto said in a televised address on Tuesday that he was deploying military forces to “provide a full, effective, and expeditious response to today’s treasonous events.”

Ruto vowed that his administration “shall treat every threat to national security and the integrity of our state as an existential danger to our republic.”

Ruto said the protests had been infiltrated by “criminals” and “hijacked by dangerous people.”

“It is not in order or even conceivable that criminals pretending to be peaceful protesters can reign terror against the people, their elected representatives and the institutions established under our constitution and expect to go scot-free. I hereby put on notice the planners, financiers, orchestrators, abetters of violence and anarchy,” he said.

Opposition politicians called on Ruto to “do the honorable thing” and “resign” after the terrible events on Tuesday, or at least withdraw the controversial finance bill.

“I am disturbed at the murders, arrests, detentions and surveillance being perpetrated by police on boys and girls who are only seeking to be heard over taxation policies that are stealing both their present and future,” said opposition leader Raila Odinga.

Former president Uhuru Kenyatta wrote an open letter to Kenyans and their government, urging the leadership to “embrace dialogue and speak to the people, not at the people.”

“Leaders must know that power and authority they have is donated to them by the people,” Kenyatta declared.

A privately-owned TV station called KTN TV said it was threatened with closure by the government unless it stopped reporting on the protests, a demand the station refused. KTN reported that clergy inside the All Saints Cathedral, which offered itself as a makeshift medical facility for injured protesters, witnessed police tear-gassing the inside of the house of worship.

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Internet monitors reported a “major disruption to internet connectivity in Kenya,” possibly caused by the government to keep protesters from coordinating their activities via TikTok, which is extremely popular in Kenya.

Human rights groups denounced the Kenyan police for brutalizing protesters, while a group of diplomatic missions from 13 countries – including the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada — issued a statement that said they were “deeply concerned” by the violence.

“We are especially shocked by the scenes witnessed outside the Kenyan Parliament. We regret the tragic loss of life and injuries sustained including by the use of live fire,” the statement said.

“We welcome civic engagement by all Kenyans, in particular the youth, in addressing issues of vital public concern. We call for restraint on all sides, and encourage all leaders to find peaceful solutions through constructive dialogue,” the statement concluded.

The Biden White House appealed for calm as it grappled with another foreign policy disaster. President Joe Biden formally named Kenya as a major non-NATO ally of the United States just hours before Kenyan police opened fire on protesters.

Biden promised the upgrade in relations to Ruto when the Kenyan president visited Washington last month, a splashy event hailed as the first state visit to the White House by an African leader in 16 years. Among the honors Ruto received was a White House state dinner with a celebrity guest list that included Barack Obama, whose sister would go on to be tear-gassed by Ruto’s police on Tuesday.

Biden’s close embrace of Ruto was due in no small part to the Kenyan president’s unflagging determination to send hundreds of Kenyan police to intervene in Haiti, despite public opposition back home, logistical problems in Haiti, and a Kenyan Supreme Court ruling that he lacked the constitutional authority to deploy police on foreign soil.

After almost a year of delays, Kenyan police officers finally arrived in Haiti on Tuesday, the vanguard of a multinational intervention force that is eventually slated to include 1,000 Kenyan police plus at least 1,500 officers from other countries.