Those protesting against tax hikes in Kenya have stormed the private residence of Kenyan lawmaker Kuria Kimani, who publicly supported controversial tax proposals, the NTV Kenya broadcaster has reported.
"Angry protesters" stormed the rural home of Kimani, the chairman of the National Assembly’s Finance and Planning Committee, on Tuesday afternoon, the broadcaster reported.
Police were forced to fire tear gas to disperse the crowd of protesters who attempted to break into the lawmaker's residence, the broadcaster reported. The protesters threw rocks at police officers and into the residence, smashing some windows, and almost overpowered the police forces, but law enforcement called for reinforcements and managed to secure the compound, the report said.
Cybersecurity watchdog organization NetBlocks said on Tuesday that "a major disruption to internet connectivity" was experienced in Kenya and was followed by internet disruptions in neighboring countries, including Uganda and Burundi.
The organization added that the incidents come "amidst a deadly crackdown by police on #RejectFinanceBill2024 protesters a day after authorities claimed there would be no internet shutdown" and are "likely to limit coverage of events on the ground where protests are held."
The watchdog later cited Kenyan network operator Safaricom as saying that "two of its undersea cables have experienced outages," but the root cause of the internet disruption remained unclear.
Later in the day, Kenyan opposition leader and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga accused the country's government of killing protesters against tax hikes and called on it to withdraw the Finance Bill.
He also said that Kenyan police were detaining and following boys and girls who were only "seeking to be heard over taxation policies." Instead of listening to young people, government officials reject any opinion and silence dissenters with "murder spree and violence," he said, calling on the government to immediately stop the violence and arrest all police officers who shot at protesters.
Earlier on Tuesday, the KTN News broadcaster reported that at least eight people were killed during protests in Nairobi, with more than 50 injured. The Citizen TV broadcaster reported that protesters in Kenya had broken into the parliament building in Nairobi, adding that a fire had broken out in part of the building.
As a result of a demonstration that took place in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, last week, the police had to fire tear gas in order to disperse the protesters involved in the demonstration.