Police on Tuesday June 18, 2024 arrested protesters in Nairobi who are demonstrating against the government’s Finance Bill 2024, which proposes additional taxes on citizens.
Despite the constitutional right to peacefully assemble and protest under Article 37 of the Kenyan Constitution, police have clamped down on the demonstrations, arresting people.
Protesters were arrested as they tried to gather at various meeting points in the city center, with police in plain clothes detaining them and driving them to different police stations.
Popular activist Hanifa Farsafi is among Kenyans who have been arrested by the police for participating in the demonstrations.
Meanwhile, a woman was heard yelling as she was pushed into a police vehicle, “Please leave me alone, I am tired with this taxation.”
At the same time, protesters were heard chanting slogans such as “Down down finance bill” and criticizing the tax hikes, with one handcuffed man yelling, “Kenyans, why am I being arrested? Do not accept that Finance Bill.”
The organizers of “occupy parliament” protest had claimed they had met all the requirements including notifying the police, but the Nairobi Regional Police Commander Adamson Bungei dismissed their notice, stating that no one had applied for a gathering or picketing permit.
“The notification they left at Central is dated June 17, 2023. It is faulty. We can’t allow them. No demonstration,” he said.
The protesters argue that the new taxes would further burden Kenyans who are already struggling with a high cost of living.
