Police in Kenya have fired live rounds and water cannon at antigovernment protesters in the capital Nairobi on the 35th anniversary of a pro-democracy uprising, killing two people and injuring several others, a hospital director said.
The two protesters had died from gunshot wounds on Monday at Eagle Nursing Home in a Nairobi suburb, according to the hospital’s director Aaron Shikuku.
Hundreds of people demonstrated in the city earlier on Monday, with some blowing whistles while they marched amid heavy police deployment.
People rally each year on July 7 to mark the date in 1990 when Kenyans demanded a return to multiparty democracy after years of autocratic rule by then-President Daniel arap Moi.
The protest – called “Saba Saba” meaning “seven seven” in Kiswahili because of the date – has turned into a wider call for President William Ruto to resign.
Al Jazeera’s Malcolm Webb, reporting from Nairobi, said police blocked most of the main roads leading to the city centre, adding that protesters were trying to reach there as clashes happened.
He said that clashes were going on in several roads as well as some other parts of Kenya.
“We started receiving reports from several locations of people with gunshot wounds,” Webb said, adding that ambulances headed to the locations where wounded people were.
Similar demonstrations over corruption, police brutality and unexplained disappearances of government critics had descended into violent clashes last month.
Most schools and at least one shopping mall were shut in anticipation of possible trouble.
