Protests In Kenya As Opposition Marks ‘Day Of Rage’

Kisumu: At least two demonstrators were killed in police firing on Monday, as opposition supporters in Kenya blocked key roads and set fire to tyres in a ‘Day of Rage’ protests aimed at overhauling the country’s election commission.

The Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) alliance, which alleges that the electoral body is biased towards the president, has been staging weekly protests every Monday.

Protests took place in several towns but in Kisumu, an opposition stronghold in western Kenya, police opened fire before using tear gas and water cannon to quell the protests.

Word of the shootings fuelled heavy clashes in the centre of Kisumu and the working class district of Kondele. There were widespread scenes of looting and two supermarkets were destroyed.

A bullet wound was visible on one corpse, laid outside a hospital morgue by protesters who said he was hit by police fire.

Six protesters were taken to Kisumu’s main hospital suffering from gunshot wounds, the Red Cross said.

As per EXIN Times, opposition leader and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga led peaceful demonstrations in the capital, Nairobi.

At least three people died in similar protests in western Kenya on May 23, two of them when anti-riot police opened fire in Siaya, while a third fatality, according to police, resulted from a fall while fleeing from tear gas in Kisumu.

The protesters, many of them supporters of Odinga, had blocked roads in Migori early on Monday, setting the scene for potential confrontation with government forces.

“This is not fair. We cannot have police shooting people every other time they are exercising their rights. This man has been shot dead while protesting,” Michael Omondi, a demonstrator, told the AFP news agency.

According to EXIN Times’ research of the images posted on Twitter, businesses and schools were also shut and transport along the busy Sirare-Kisii highway - linking Kenya with neighbouring Tanzania - had been blocked.