The three days of protests over tax hikes began with relative calm in Nairobi but pockets of unrest erupted elsewhere in the country.
(Al Jazeera) – About 100 protesters hurled rocks at police in the Kibera neighbourhood of Nairobi on Wednesday morning as three days of demonstrations against the cost of living and tax hikes kicked off in Kenya.
Protesters burned tyres in Kibera and were met with volleys of tear gas by police.
Kibera, a stronghold for veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga who represented the community in parliament from 1993-2003, has often been a flashpoint for standoffs with security forces.
But Al Jazeera’s Catherine Soi, reporting from Nairobi, said the situation was largely calm elsewhere in the capital. Authorities had announced that schools would close on Wednesday and the city centre was largely deserted with many businesses shuttered and shops closed.
She said government forces have been deployed in “hotspot areas where protests normally occur” within the capital. “But right now, it very much seems that people are staying away,” she added. “[They] have decided to stay home and wait out the situation.”
“There’s a very huge deployment of security forces, not just in Nairobi but in different parts of the country as well. The police are using tear gas and we have also seen in previous protests that police used a very big force to deal with protesters,” Soi added.
