Several protesters were killed and at least 400 others were wounded on Wednesday when antigovernment protests in the capital, Nairobi turned deadly.

Kenyan officials have not disclosed the number of casualties. Reports from media and rights groups varied, placing the number of dead between eight and 16.

This is the latest outbreak of violence in the East African country where young demonstrators have frequently taken to the streets in recent months to protest myriad issues including police brutality, government corruption and high taxes.

The demonstrations on Wednesday were held to mark the bloody June 25, 2024, protests against tax rises when police opened fire on large numbers of protesters, killing at least 60, according to rights groups.

Here’s what we know:

What happened during the protests?

Thousands took to the streets in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisii and several other major Kenyan cities in the early hours of Wednesday to mark the anniversary of the violent 2024 anti-tax protests, particularly the killing of 60 protesters, on June 25 last year.

Bearing Kenyan flags, the protesters chanted slogans like “Ruto Must Go” and “Occupy Statehouse” in opposition to President William Ruto’s government and referring to his official residence.

Banks and schools in Nairobi’s central business district were shut in anticipation of the protests, and police had cordoned off the State House, as well as the parliament building, with layers of barbed wire. Last year, protesters broke into the parliament block, chasing out politicians and setting parts of the building on fire.

Wednesday’s march was largely peaceful at first – and much smaller compared with last year’s protests. Scenes in Nairobi, however, turned violent later on, after “goons” or men believed to be undercover security officials and armed with whips and clubs attacked the protesters. Police also used live fire, rubber bullets, water cannon and tear gas to disperse the demonstrators.

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Shops and businesses in central Nairobi were also attacked, looted and burned by unidentified groups among the demonstrators. Some protesters also burned security barricades in the city and physically attacked suspected plain-clothed officers.

In Kikuyu town, about 20km (12.5 miles) from Nairobi, protesters stormed and torched local government buildings, including a police station and courtroom. Some were arrested by the police but have not been identified. In other cities, including Mombasa, marches remained peaceful.

Clashes were also reported in the towns of Matuu and Mlolongo in the eastern Machakos County, approximately 100km (62 miles) from the capital. Violence was also reported in Karatina, Nyeri County.

How many people have been killed?

Figures vary and the Kenyan authorities have not confirmed the number of dead.

According to a joint statement issued on Wednesday evening by the Kenya Medical Association, Law Society of Kenya, and the Police Reforms Working Group, eight people were killed, most of them in Nairobi. The group said 400 others were being treated for injuries, including three police officers. Of those, 83 people sustained serious injuries, including at least eight protesters treated for gunshot wounds.

However, Irungu Houghton, the head of Amnesty Kenya, told Reuters that 16 people had died, adding that this figure had been verified by the global rights watchdog and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR).

Security guard Fred Wamale Wanyonyi, who was on duty guarding a mall in central Nairobi, was one of those confirmed killed, according to rights groups.

What were the protests about?

Protesters had gathered to mark the anniversary of last year’s anti-tax protests, in which some 60 people were killed by police, although no officials have been punished.

Activists said it was important for Kenyans to remember the bloody protests of 2024.

“It is extremely important that the young people mark June 25th because they lost people who look like them, who speak like them … who are fighting for good governance,” Angel Mbuthia, chair of the youth league for the opposition Jubilee Party, told the AFP news agency.

On Wednesday, demonstrators were also demanding the overthrow of Ruto’s government and called for an end to police brutality, corruption and general economic hardship in the country.

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Protester Osman Mohamed told Al Jazeera at the scene of the protests that he was there to demand better from the country’s leaders.

“The government is taking us as a joke. They don’t want to listen to us … they don’t listen to us as citizens. We are the people, and they’re supposed to listen because of the power of the people,” he said.

Tensions had risen in recent weeks after 31-year-old blogger and teacher Albert Ojwang died in police custody between June 7 and 8. He had been arrested for allegedly insulting deputy police chief Eliud Lagat, and the police initially told his family he had died from self-inflicted wounds.

Ojwang’s killing prompted outrage and protests across the country, with people calling for the officers involved to be punished. Lagat, who denies any wrongdoing, stepped down from his post last week pending the outcome of an investigation. Three officers were charged with Ojwang’s murder this week.

How have the authorities responded to these protests?

The protests were anticipated, and authorities had been informed of them, rights activists said. Elijah Rottok of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights told Al Jazeera that protest organisers had received assurances from government officials that they would be allowed the space to protest peacefully. Despite this, he said, there was clear evidence of excessive force in the police response.

“We’ve seen a deliberate use of force to suppress (protests),” he said. “We are condemning the excessive use of force … They need to abide by the rule of law and ensure that human rights are upheld at all times.”

Authorities shut down live coverage of the protests on Wednesday afternoon, but that directive was later overturned by Nairobi’s High Court, which ordered the Communications Authority of Kenya to restore signals to three independent television stations.

Ruto, who was attending a burial in the coastal town of Kilifi on Wednesday, called for the demonstrations to remain peaceful in a statement.

“Protests should not be to destroy peace in Kenya. We do not have another country to go to when things go wrong. It is our responsibility to keep our country safe,” he said.

What were the June 2024 protests about?

Violent protests shook the country starting on June 18, 2024, after Ruto announced a controversial Finance Bill, a tax law that many said would make essential commodities costlier, as the country was gripped by an economic crisis that had seen the value of the Kenyan shilling drop by 22 percent.

Young people largely led the protests, which went on for more than a week, but older Kenyans also filled the streets in anger. Although lawmakers removed certain clauses from the bill before passing it into law, the protests continued, with demonstrators calling for Ruto to step down. Officials insisted higher taxes were needed for the government to fulfil loan agreements with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

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On June 25, protesters broke into the Kenyan parliament, where lawmakers were convening. The demonstrators ransacked the building and set its entrance on fire. In response, the police opened fire, killing at least 60 people and abducting several others, including some journalists.

Ruto withdrew the bill on June 26, but the violence continued. Human Rights Watch has reported that following the protests, the bodies of some of those missing have turned up in rivers, forests and mortuaries, and showed signs of torture and mutilation. Some abductees told the rights group they were taken by officials who forced them to reveal the names of protest leaders.

What will happen next?

Calm returned to Nairobi on Thursday morning, although devastation was evident.

Smoke was still rising from at least 10 torched buildings in downtown Nairobi as business owners returned to ransacked and looted stores in the central business district.

In parliament, Ruto assented to the new Finance Bill 2025, from which tax rises had been removed. However, a controversial proposal which will see the Kenya Revenue Authority provided with access to taxpayers’ personal and financial data was included.

It’s unclear yet if or how lawmakers plan to address the protesters’ demands.

Summary Police mischaracterize protester deaths as accidents or mob justice

Rights groups accuse authorities of covering up police killings

IPOA investigates complaints of unlawful arrests and abductions

Government-funded rights body registers 82 abductions

NAIROBI, Jan 6 (Reuters) – Nineteen-year-old Charles Owino was killed by a gunshot to the head during a day of anti-government protests near Nairobi in July, according to an autopsy report seen by Reuters.

But Kenya’s police recorded his death as a road accident, his brother said, citing the morgue logbook he was shown after he visually identified Owino’s body. Reuters has not seen a copy of the logbook entry.

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In a separate case, police said Shaquille Obienge, 21, died in a road accident, his father told Reuters, also citing an entry in the morgue logbook.

But Obienge was shot in the neck, according to the government’s own autopsy report conducted after his father visually identified his body. Obienge, who was also a protester, died the same day as Owino, in the same Nairobi suburb of Kitengela, according to the report seen by Reuters.

In Kenya, morgue logbooks record the cause of death reported by police when they bring in bodies, with public pathologists usually only performing autopsies once bodies are identified by relatives.

Nineteen-year-old Charles Owino attends a protest before being killed by a gunshot to the head during a day of anti-government demonstrations, in Kitengela, Kajiado county, Kenya, July 16, 2024. REUTERS/Monicah Mwangi Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab

Reuters spoke to three police officers who work in a unit deployed during protests who said that Kenyan police at times mischaracterize deaths caused by officers as “death by accident”, “mob justice” or “drownings” in morgue logs to cover their tracks. The officers requested anonymity to speak about sensitive matters.

For this story Reuters reviewed copies of four autopsy reports conducted by public pathologists after family members identified Owino, Obienge and two other young men killed in or after the anti-government protests that rocked the country in June and July.

Relatives described discrepancies between the causes of death recorded by the police in morgue logbooks and the autopsy reports in three of the cases.

All the bodies were tagged with a number that was also entered into the logbook by morgue workers. Although Obienge and Owino were logged without a name when they were admitted to the morgue, their relatives matched the number on the body with the logbook entry and could see the cause of death declared by police.

Reuters was unable to independently verify the allegations made by the families.

The third death, of Kepher Odiwuor Ouma, 24, was blamed by police on “mob justice,” his family said, citing the morgue logbook, which named him. However, two eyewitnesses told Reuters Ouma was picked up by police at a protest on July 3 and beaten unconscious.

The battered body of the fourth protester, Denzel Omondi, was found on July 6 in a pool of water nine days after he disappeared, with the autopsy recording his death as drowning.

The National Police Service did not reply to questions about the specific cases examined by Reuters.

The offices of Kenya’s President William Ruto, his deputy president and the interior ministry did not respond to requests for comment.

Thousands of young Kenyans took to the streets in nationwide protests against tax hikes and political corruption, starting in late June. Deputy President Kithure Kindiki has said 42 people were killed during a police response that rights groups say involved firing live rounds

Protesters gather around the body of nineteen-year-old Charles Owino who was killed by a gunshot to the head during a day of anti-government demonstration in Kitengela, Kajiado county, Kenya, July 16, 2024. REUTERS/Monicah Mwangi Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab

Some prominent rights groups have accused Kenyan authorities of a cover-up of dozens of alleged police killings, unexplained abductions and illegal detentions related to the protests, which became known popularly as the Gen-Z protests because of their youthful demographic.

Kenya’s National Commission on Human Rights, a government-funded body, recorded 82 cases of enforced disappearances in the period between the protests starting in June and December, compared to just nine cases in the previous 18 months. Of those 29 remain unaccounted for, the commission said in a statement on Dec. 26.

Some of the alleged abductions were linked to a low-profile unit of Kenya’s Directorate of Criminal Investigations, a police department, according to the three officers and Human Rights Watch associate Africa director, Otsieno Namwaya, speaking to Reuters. Namwaya identified the unit as the DCI’s Operation Action Team (OAT), citing contacts within the DCI.

In an interview with Reuters, Resila Onyango, a spokesperson for Kenya’s National Police Service, said she had “no idea” about OAT’s activities or the allegations levelled against it.

In response to a question about allegations of police killings and illegal detentions, Onyango said formal complaints would be investigated by the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) watchdog, which probes cases of police brutality.

In July, IPOA released a statement saying it had “registered 10 complaints of unlawful arrests, abductions, and disappearances”, including the abductions of Omondi and another person mentioned in this story. Four people Reuters spoke to said they or their relatives had filed complaints with IPOA.

IPOA did not respond to requests for comment.

Photos taken by Reuters during the July 16 Kitengela protest show Owino’s body on the street, blood sprayed across the ground near his head. A police officer stands in the foreground, brandishing a rifle. Reuters was able to identify Owino by comparing the clothes he was wearing in the protest and the postmortem photos, which also show a head wound.

A police officer advances as a protestor stands next to the body of Charles Owino during an anti-government demonstration in Kitengela, Kenya, July 16, 2024. REUTERS/Monicah Mwangi Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab

Deputy President Kindiki, who was serving as interior minister in charge of police at the time of the protests, told reporters in December that the protests “unfortunately led to loss of life.” He said some of those lives were lost “through police action,” adding that police were allowed to use lethal force in exceptional circumstances.

In a Dec. 31 speech, Ruto acknowledged “instances of excessive and extrajudicial actions by members of the security services.”

MORGUE LOGBOOKS

For this story, Reuters reviewed three months of logbook entries covering the protest period and its aftermath at the Nairobi Funeral Home, Kenya’s busiest public morgue, which is where police take unidentified bodies and is run by the city’s local government. Access to the logbooks was provided by the head of the morgue, a doctor.

Item 1 of 4 Riot police officers detain protesters demonstrating against what they say is a wave of unexplained abductions of government critics, along the Aga Khan walk in downtown Nairobi, Kenya December 30, 2024. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya/File Photo [1/4] Riot police officers detain protesters demonstrating against what they say is a wave of unexplained abductions of government critics, along the Aga Khan walk in downtown Nairobi, Kenya December 30, 2024. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab

Riot police attempt to disperse protesters during a day of anti-government demonstrations in Kitengela, Kajiado county, Kenya, July 16, 2024. REUTERS/Monicah Mwangi Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab

The morgue head and the chief of the Nairobi county health department declined requests for interviews.

Between June 25, the day of the parliament protests, and Sept. 30, police recorded just nine fatalities as gunshot deaths, less than half the gunshot deaths recorded in those months a year ago, the review of the logs for both periods showed. The logbooks do not name individuals unless police provide their identities. Only one gunshot death was recorded between June 25, the most violent day of protest, and June 30.

Riot police officers attempt to disperse protesters during a day of anti-government demonstrations in Kitengela, Kajiado county, Kenya, July 16, 2024. REUTERS/Monicah Mwangi Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab

In the same three-month period, the morgue logs reveal 94 deaths attributed by police to mob justice and drownings, compared to 59 in the same period a year earlier.

In total the morgue received 694 bodies from police in the period, up by a quarter from the year-before period.

Asked by Reuters about these findings, Irungu Houghton, executive director at Amnesty International’s Kenya chapter, said the low number of gunshot deaths recorded, “leads us to think that there may have been an attempt to cover up the number of bodies that died as a result of police shootings,” at the protests. Reuters couldn’t independently confirm this.

CLOSE RANGE

When restaurant manager George Obienge went to the Nairobi morgue to search for his son Shaquille six days after the Kitengela protest, staff did not let him in at first and told him all the bodies received recently were victims of road accidents, he said.

Eventually he managed to enter and identified Shaquille, he said. The youth had a large wound on the side of his neck, photos he shared with Reuters show.

The autopsy later concluded Shaquille was killed by “gunshot at close range,” according to photos of the report shared with Reuters by Obienge. Reuters was unable to identify the pathologists who signed three of the autopsies reviewed for this story. The fourth pathologist said he was not authorised to speak to the media.

In the third case, Ouma was walking with friends during a protest on July 3 when some were grabbed by uniformed and plain-clothed police who bundled them in a van and beat them, two friends who were at the demonstration and Ouma’s uncle told Reuters.

Most were released, but Ouma was unconscious and badly hurt and police took him away, said one of his friends, who was also initially detained.

Police delivered his body to the Nairobi morgue five weeks later, saying he had been found “lying dead” on the road, according to a photo of a postmortem form signed by police and shared with Reuters by Ouma’s uncle. It gave the cause of death as multiple injuries due to blunt force trauma. In the morgue logbook, the cause of death, listed alongside his name, was recorded as “mob justice,” his uncle said. Reuters has not seen the logbook entry.

POLICE BRUTALITY

For years the DCI’s Special Service Unit (SSU) faced hundreds of allegations, with Amnesty International’s Kenya chapter linking it to most of over 500 extrajudicial killings and dozens of enforced disappearances between 2019 and Sept. 2022.

Detained protesters sit inside a police vehicle during an anti-government demonstration following nationwide deadly riots over tax hikes and a controversial now-withdrawn finance bill in Nairobi, Kenya, July 16, 2024. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab

In October 2022, weeks after taking office, President Ruto disbanded the SSU, accusing it of “killing Kenyans arbitrarily”. Neither former president Uhuru Kenyatta nor police officials have responded publicly to Ruto’s allegations.

In its place, another DCI squad has been involved in the clampdown on protesters, including killings and abductions, the three police officers told Reuters.

Called OAT, the squad has absorbed former SSU members, HRW’s Namwaya said, citing police contacts. Reuters could not establish OAT’s involvement in any crimes.

The police did not respond to requests for comment about OAT’s activities or size.

A police officer wearing plain clothes detains a protester demonstrating against what they say is a wave of unexplained abductions of government critics, along the Aga Khan walk in downtown Nairobi, Kenya, December 30, 2024. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab

MISSING

The body of university student Omondi was found in a pond at an abandoned quarry on Nairobi’s outskirts. The autopsy report, prepared by a public pathologist after his body was identified by his father James Otieno, detailed hyperinflated lungs as well as bruises on his head, neck, right forearm and knees. Otieno shared a copy of the report with Reuters.

“Prior to drowning, something else happened,” Otieno, a 55-year-old private security officer said, without elaborating. He added that IPOA had promised an investigation. IPOA did not respond to Reuters questions about Omondi’s case.

Reuters spoke to seven people who were either kidnapped themselves or who said relatives had gone missing. All six abductees were either protesters or politically active, including high-profile rights activists Bob Njagi and Aslam Longton, who took part in the protests and were each held for over a month. Three relatives said family members were grabbed by armed men from their homes or from the street after protests. One is still missing.

Kenyan activist Bob Njagi shows his scars during a Reuters interview in Nairobi. Njagi says he was cuffed in solitary confinement for 32 days. Picture taken on October 17, 2024. REUTERS/Monicah Mwangi Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab

One of the policemen deployed during the demonstrations said he worked alongside undercover officers who mingled with crowds to identify protest ringleaders and get their phone numbers so they could track their movements and organise abductions. The police did not respond to questions about these or other allegations made by the officers interviewed by Reuters.

Riot police officers detain protesters demonstrating against what they say is a wave of unexplained abductions of government critics, along the Aga Khan walk in downtown Nairobi, Kenya, December 30, 2024. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab

Law student Joshua Okayo was grabbed off the street in late June by men who beat him with metal rods and asked him why he had attended the protests at parliament, he said. Before he was released two days later, he said his captors made him an offer.

“They asked me, ‘what if you work for us? We help people who give us information about the protest movement’,” he said. Reuters could not verify whether Okayo’s captors were police.

Reporting and writing by Ammu Kannampilly; Additional reporting by Vivianne Wandera, Edwin Okoth, David Lewis and Humphrey Malalo in Nairobi and Fred Ooko in Homa Bay; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel

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