Raila condemns police brutality following deadly protests

Azimio Chief Raila Odinga has called on the government to consider dialogue with Kenyans opposed to the Finance Bill 2024, over brutality against peaceful protestors agitating for a more sensitive tax regime.

Odinga said that the firing of live rounds of ammunition, detonation of teargas canisters, and deployment of water cannons on unarmed demonstrators was unwarranted and avoidable.

“The Constitution seems to have been suspended. We cannot allow that. The government has unleashed brute force on our country's children and more seems to be on the way. We cannot allow that,” he said in a statement.

According to Odinga, the events of Tuesday, June 25, which included a never-before-seen breach and occupation of Parliament by enraged citizens, is a manifestation of anger and disappointment that Kenyans have held on for long before being triggered by the Finance Bill.

“Kenya cannot afford to kill its children just because the children are asking for food, Jobs and a listening ear. Police must therefore immediately stop shooting innocent, peaceful and unarmed protesting children who are asking for guarantees of a better tomorrow from the State,” said Odinga.

“This Bill is neither an emergency nor a life and death matter for the government and Kenyans,” he added.

Further, he has advised the government to drop the contested Bill in entirety and continue with last year’s Finance Bill in the interim, as was the case in 2023 when Kenyans opposed a 16 percent VAT on petroleum products.

He also expressed concerns over murders, arrests and recent wave of abductions of dissenters who are “only seeking to be heard over taxation policies that are stealing both their present and future” while calling for the intervention of the international community.

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Odinga, who has led several anti-government demonstrations in the past, has been uncharacteristically silent since the start of the current demos partly due to his African Union Commission Chairperson bid which President Ruto’s government is spearheading.