According to authorities, a man passed away on the fringes of large-scale protests over proposed tax increases in the Kenyan capital on Friday. A day earlier, 200 people were hurt in the escalating action.
Following Thursday’s rallies in Nairobi, the second this week, a police watchdog said it was looking into claims the man was shot by police.
With a heavy youth component, the demonstrations started on Tuesday in Nairobi and quickly expanded around the country.
They have been sparked by the general dissatisfaction with President William Ruto’s economic policies, as a great deal of people are already experiencing a crisis related to rising costs of living.
While most of Thursday’s protests in Nairobi were nonviolent, police used water cannon and tear gas throughout the day to try to scatter the crowds who had assembled to demonstrate in front of the parliament.
A 29-year-old man’s death was “documented,” according to the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA), “allegedly as a result of police shooting.”
“The Authority has this morning launched investigations into the fatal shooting,” the IPOA said in a statement.
According to a Nairobi police report seen by AFP, a 29-year-old man was taken to hospital in Nairobi’s central district at around 7:00 pm (1600 GMT) on Thursday “unconscious with a thigh injury” before “succumbing” to his injuries, without giving further details.
“One demonstrator was shot yesterday in the CBD (central business district) as he was trying to run away from the police,” Amnesty International Kenya spokesman Mathias Kinyoda told AFP.
Kinyoda reported the person’s death.
He demanded an investigation, claiming that the gunman “was wearing plain clothes but he was accompanying the police.”
A witness who was among those gathering on a building’s second level told AFP, “We saw what happened.”
“We could see police opening fire at the group that was gathered there,” the man said.
“It was a police officer in a baseball cap because he got down from a police vehicle and ran back to it after the shooting when the crowd dispersed.”
Amnesty International Kenya was among the organizations that reported late on Thursday that at least 200 people had been hurt in Nairobi.
Eight people were listed as critically ill by the Kenyan Red Cross on X, formerly known as Twitter.
