About 100 people stormed a farm owned by former President Uhuru Kenyatta on Monday on the outskirts of the capital, Nairobi, while a group of unidentified people caused material damage to a company linked to the family of opposition leader Raila Odinga.
According to reports in the Kenyan newspaper ‘The Standard’, the people who entered Kenyatta’s property felled trees using chainsaws and stole several head of cattle before setting fire to part of the farm, events which resulted in the injury of a journalist.
After that, a second group of people caused material damage and broke several windows at the headquarters of the company East Africa Spectre Limited, linked to Odinga’s family, but no arrests have been made so far.
The head of the building’s security company, Humphrey Waswa, has said that »about 50 people have arrived aboard motorcycles escorted by four Land Cruisier without license plates». They subsequently escaped,» he said, with no reports of injuries so far.
For his part, Odinga has again asked his followers and government opponents to demonstrate peacefully and has condemned what happened both in the company linked to his family and in Kenyatta’s lands, stressing that »those who invade other people’s lands and companies are cowards».
NEW DAY OF PROTESTS The incidents have taken place in the midst of an upsurge of tensions during the last weeks, in which Odinga has called for mobilizations against the Government due to the increase in the cost of living. The Kenyan Executive has reinforced the security deployment this Monday in Nairobi before a new day of protests, which have not received authorization.
Throughout the day on Monday there have been clashes between protesters and the police, who on some occasions have had to contain the protests by firing tear gas.
In the city of Kisumu, in western Kenya, the death of a protester was confirmed, as well as several wounded by gunshot wounds. The young man was reportedly hit by officers when they responded to stone throwing, according to the newspaper ‘The Star’.
The victim was thrown at the gates of the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital in Kisumu, according to its director, George Rae, who detailed that the body had bullet impacts.
In the neighboring town of Homa Bay, gunshots were also heard, after the police had to shoot in the air in an attempt to contain the protests. The clashes in the vicinity of the city center lasted about four hours.
The former prime minister has called for demonstrations every Monday and Thursday to protest the high cost of living and against the government, which he considers illegitimate for considering fraudulent the elections of August 2022, which he ran with the support of Kenyatta. In the elections William Ruto won with 50.5 percent of the votes, as validated by the Supreme Court, although Odinga denounced fraud.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
