Kenyan anti-tax hike protests subside as police clamp down

At least 300 people were arrested, including several senior opposition leaders, and several people were reported shot, some possibly fatally, in clashes with police on Wednesday. The demonstrations, planned for Wednesday to Friday, are the third round of protests that the opposition has called for this month.

Apart from minor skirmishes between about 500 protesters and police on Thursday in Kibera, a vast shanty town in the southwest of the capital Nairobi, most residents were going about their daily business as normal.

Many shops in the capital’s central business district reopened and traffic picked up on major roads. Schools also reopened in Nairobi, the port city of Mombasa and Kisumu, the country’s third-largest city, after being shut on Wednesday.

Protests in 2023 have cost the economy more than $20-million per day, according to a private-sector lobby group.

Veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga did not make a public appearance on Wednesday or Thursday as he did during previous protests.

An afternoon rally called by his Azimio La Umoja coalition in central Nairobi on Thursday did not materialise, as anti-riot police kept watch in areas where the opposition often gathers.

Anti-riot police also patrolled main business streets in Mombasa, according to a Reuters reporter.

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Odinga told privately owned NTV Kenya television he had been out of the public limelight while he recovered from a bad flu and said the protests were about the citizens, not him or his fellow opposition leaders.

“The demonstrations are for all Kenyans,” he said.

Odinga lost last August’s election to President William Ruto, his fifth election defeat in a row, and has repeatedly called for acts of civil disobedience against a government he accuses of raising the cost of living and consolidating power.

Police praised