Kenyan police fired tear gas and arrested at least a dozen demonstrators Tuesday as hundreds of people gathered near parliament to protest tax hikes, according to AFP journalists at the scene.
The East African economic powerhouse has struggled with a cost-of-living crisis, which critics say will only worsen under the levies laid out in a bill due to be debated in parliament on Tuesday afternoon.
The cash-strapped government has defended the move — projected to raise some 346.7 billion shillings ($2.7 billion), equivalent to 1.9 percent of GDP — as a necessary measure to cut reliance on external borrowing.
Hundreds of black-clad protesters marched towards parliament in the capital Nairobi’s business district but were kept back by police officers lobbing tear gas at the crowds.
“I am tired. The prices of everything have gone up, life is no longer affordable,” said 29-year-old Rara Eisa.
Eisa, who said she had never protested before Tuesday, described the hikes as oppressive.
“They are not lenient in any way,” she told AFP.
Many demonstrators waved signs emblazoned “do not force the taxes on us”, referring to President William Ruto as Zakayo, the Swahili name for the biblical tax collector Zacchaeus.
Student Paloma Njoroge, 22, who was among those protesting, rejected pro-government claims that the demonstrations amounted to “social media activism that yields nothing”.
