Kenyan police fire tear gas at opposition leader Odinga protest

Kenyan police on Monday fired teargas and a water cannon at stone-throwing supporters of opposition leader Raila Odinga during the second consecutive week of protests against the government and high food prices.

The clashes broke out as Odinga’s convoy passed through a neighbourhood in the capital Nairobi, Reuters reporters said. Hundreds of supporters had gathered around the convoy in the Kawangware neighbourhood, shouting “Ruto must go,” in reference to President William Ruto.

Odinga, who lost to Ruto in last August’s election, is seeking to channel frustrations about stubborn inflation into a durable movement against the president. He has vowed to press ahead with biweekly protests – every Monday and Thursday – despite police banning the demonstrations.

Ruto has accused Odinga of trying to stir up chaos in a country with a history of political and ethnic violence, often around elections. Odinga denies this.

In separate incidents on Monday, unidentified people vandalised a property belonging to Odinga’s family and another owned by former president Uhuru Kenyatta, who supported Odinga in last year’s election, Kenyan media reported.

Dennis Onyango, Odinga’s spokesperson, said he believed the government sent the attackers.

Spokespersons for the government, police, and Kenyatta did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Odinga, a former prime minister, has lost five presidential elections in a row. He challenged the most recent result before the Supreme Court, which upheld Ruto’s victory.

TEAR GAS

In Nairobi’s Mathare slums and in the western city of Kisumu, close to where Odinga has his ancestral home, police officers clad in riot gear used tear gas against protesters who were hurling stones at them, footage on Kenyan television station NTV showed.

A Reuters witness reported little activity in Nairobi’s central business district, with many shops remaining closed amid a heavy police presence ahead of Monday’s planned gatherings.

During last week’s protests, a university student was killed when police fired live rounds after running out of tear gas canisters and blank rounds, according to an internal police report shown to Reuters by a police source.

A police spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment about the report.

During and after those protests, police arrested more than 200 people, including lawmakers belonging to Odinga’s faction in both houses of the parliament.