Protest Scene 

An official of the Kenya Medical Association has confirmed that 13 protesters were killed on Tuesday in the ongoing protests against tax increase in the country after the police opened fire at the protesters who invaded the Kenyan parliament.

This is as the Kenyan Defence Minister, Aden Bare Duale, confirmed in a short statement that the government had deployed the army to support the police in tackling “the security emergency” in the country.

The Defence Minister said, “Pursuant to Article 241 (3) (b) of the Constitution of Kenya as read with sections 31 (1) (a), 31 (1) (c), 33 (1), 34 (1) and 34 (2) of the Kenya Defence Forces Act, (Cap. 199), the Kenya Defence Forces is deployed on the 25th June, 2024 in support of the National Police Service in response to the security emergency caused by the ongoing violent protests in various parts of the Republic of Kenya resulting in destruction and breaching of critical infrastructure.”

The youth-led protests began mostly peacefully last week, with thousands of protesters marching in the capital Nairobi and across the country against the tax increases.

Meanwhile, tensions flared on Tuesday afternoon when police officers fired live ammunition on crowds that later invaded the parliament complex.

The President of the Kenya Medical Association, Simon Kigondu, said, “So far, we have at least 13 people killed, but this is not the final number,” adding that he had never seen “such level of violence against unarmed people,” AFP reports.

An official at Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi said on Wednesday that medics were treating “160 people… some of them with soft tissue injuries, some of them with bullet wounds”.

The Kenyan government is said to have been taken by surprise by the intensity of opposition to its tax proposals, mostly led by young Kenyans.

Images emanating from the protests which are making the rounds on social media and on local TV stations showed several bodies strewn on the ground, while protest organisers have reportedly urged people to walk home together and “stay safe”.

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