Two people were killed following anti-government protests in Kenya on Wednesday, according to a hospital official, as the interior ministry announced the arrest of over 300 others in connection with the demonstrations.
Raila Odinga, the veteran opposition leader, has held several rounds of protests against the government since March, alarmed the international community, which has joined calls for a political solution after previous demonstrations left more than a dozen dead.
“Clashes between police and protesters resulted in two deaths in Kisumu, the opposition bastion,” said George Rae, CEO of Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Hospital.
“There are two bodies recorded at the mortuary with gunshot wounds,” he said, adding that 14 others were hospitalised.
Odinga’s Azimio alliance has promised three days of protests this week, and on Wednesday evening urged “Citizens of Kenya to come out in even greater numbers tomorrow.”
Although Wednesday’s protests in Nairobi and other towns appeared to be more subdued than previous demonstrations, with fewer reports of casualties from sporadic clashes, Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki said authorities had recorded many cases of vandalism and looting.
“More than 300 people have been arrested across the country and will be charged with various crimes, including looting, malicious damage of property, arson, robbery with violence, and assaulting law enforcers,” Kindiki said.
Schools and businesses were closed in Nairobi, Kisumu, and Mombasa, with small groups of mostly young men setting fire to tyres and engaging in running battles with police.
Police fired tear gas at scattered groups of demonstrators in Nairobi’s Kibera slum and the towns of Homa Bay, Kisii, and Migori, all Odinga strongholds, while offices in the capital’s business district were largely shuttered.