Kenya: UN Calls for Restraint Amid Strong Protests
Kenyan President, William Ruto accompained by the UN General Secretary Antonio Guterrez, June 2024 Photo: @SwalaNyetiKe
June 26, 2024 Hour: 2:11 pm
Guterres insisted on the need to defend the right to demonstrate peacefully and sent condolences to the families of those killed.
On Wednesday, the United Nations (UN) called for restraint on the part of Kenyan authorities and protesters amid the violent days that have kept the country still in a tense calm today.
Related:
Kenya: at least 17 dead in protestsagainst tax increase
A statement from the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, warned of concern over the outbreak while calling for restraint by the authorities and a peaceful response to the protests.
“The Secretary-General urges the Kenyan authorities to exercise restraint and calls for all demonstrations to be conducted peacefully,” said the text signed by Guterres’ spokesman Stéphane Dujarric.
The note deplored reports of deaths and injuries, including to journalists and medical personnel. It also warned of reported cases of arbitrary targeted arrests.
Guterres insisted on the need to defend the right to demonstrate peacefully and sent condolences to the families of those killed.
According to press reports, the African country dawned Wednesday in a tense calm, after the assault on the parliament building and vandalism in Nairobi and other cities.
The Kenya Medical Association said more than a dozen people were killed on Tuesday alone in a violent day of protests against President William Ruto’s government that swept through the capital and other parts of the nation.
The violence began earlier in the week in rejection of a finance bill that includes tax hikes among other things.
Protesters forced the government to scrap two of the proposals, raising VAT on bread and taxing car ownership, but the conciliatory gesture was insufficient and the protests continued with hundreds of people killed and hundreds arrested
Autor: OSG
Fuente: The Independent, The Star
