Kenya police use tear gas to disperse crowds following call for more protests

Riot police used tear gas to disperse protesters in Kenya's capital Nairobi on Tuesday and demonstrations took place in other towns after young activists called for more protests following a week of clashes in which dozens died.

Reuters journalists saw clouds of tear gas on a main road through central Nairobi before midday, where riot police in helmets had been present since early morning.

Outside the capital, Kenyan television stations showed hundreds of protesters marching peacefully, carrying palm fronds in Mombasa on the Indian Ocean coast, and dozens in Kisumu on Lake Victoria. In the southwestern town of Migori, protesters had set tyres on fire.

Members of the protest movement, which has no official leaders and largely organizes via social media, have rejected appeals from President William Ruto for dialogue, even after he abandoned proposed tax rises that triggered the demonstrations.

The authorities appealed for calm.

"It's a beautiful day to choose patriotism. A beautiful day to choose peace, order, and the sanctity of our nationhood," State House communications director Gerald Bitok wrote on X on Tuesday, adding in Swahili: "Violence is not patriotism."

Downtown Nairobi was busier on Tuesday morning than it had been in recent days, with shops that had been shut during the protests reopening. Residents believed the worst of the unrest had passed for now.

"I think it's not going to be maandamano (protest) because maybe people are afraid because some people have been shot," said Kennedy Otwal, who was walking through downtown.

The protests, which started as an online outpouring of anger over nearly $2.7 billion of tax hikes in a proposed finance bill, have grown into a nationwide movement against corruption and misgovernance.

Reuters