By Jefferson Kahinju and Edwin Waita
NAIROBI (Reuters) -Kenyan police detained several people on Thursday who attempted to present a petition to the president’s office and lay flowers to honour those killed a month ago on the most violent day of anti-government protests, protesters said.
Among those detained were Boniface Mwangi, a prominent activist involved in the protests, they said.
One of the protesters, Hanifa Adan, said on X that some of the parents of people killed in the June 25 protest had been detained on Thursday.
Asked by Reuters to comment, a police spokesperson said she would check on the reported detentions.
Videos posted on social media by activists showed the marchers just before they were detained, carrying white crosses stained with red and chanting: “We are peaceful!”
They had been trying to present a petition to demand justice for those who were killed in the protests.
More than 50 people have been killed since mid-June, when protesters began taking to the streets to oppose tax increases proposed by President William Ruto, according to the government-funded Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR).
KNCHR has also said that nearly 700 people have been arbitrarily detained and 59 have been abducted or are missing in connection with the protests.
“We will not allow that their death be in vain,” Wanjira Wanjiru, an activist from the capital’s Mathare neighbourhood, said before leaving for central Nairobi to join the march.
“We will not allow our country to ever go back to the realities that you cannot go out to protest for fear that a bullet may take your life.”
Ruto withdrew the tax legislation the day after the violence at parliament and sacked most of his cabinet, but demonstrations against his government and systemic corruption have continued.
Many protesters are calling for Ruto to resign, and are angered by his nominations to a new cabinet. Most are holdovers from the previous government and some are members of the main opposition party, which the protesters have also condemned as corrupt.
Ruto says the new cabinet reflects national unity and will address the demands of the protest movement. He has promised to investigate alleged abuses by the police during demonstrations but has broadly defended their conduct.
On Thursday, he nominated Douglas Kanja to lead the national police service. Kanja had been acting in that role since July 12 when his predecessor resigned following condemnation of officers’ response to the protests.
Kanja is a career police officer with nearly four decades of experience and served as the deputy inspector general of the force.
Since the protests began in Kenya, small anti-corruption demonstrations have taken place in neighbouring Uganda and activists in Nigeria have called for protests next month against graft and the high cost of living.
(Reporting by George Obulutsa; Editing by Alex Richardson, William Maclean and Timothy Heritage)
