Kenya police tear-gas protesters, halting business in key cities

Kenyan police used teargas to disperse protesters in some of the nation’s biggest cities, shuttering shops and offices in their central business districts. Its currency and dollar bonds weakened.

Local media broadcasts showed demonstrations in at least 10 cities including the capital, Nairobi, the port city of Mombasa, and Kisumu near Lake Victoria in the west. The crowds on Tuesday were smaller than those that amassed last month to demand the government drop plans to introduce a swathe of new taxes.

Kenya’s interior ministry said the nation’s security forces are on high alert, with more personnel deployed to “hotspots and areas where security for critical infrastructure is prioritized,” according to a statement. A national multi-agency command post has been established to coordinate security operations, it said.

The shilling fell as much as 0.5% — the biggest decline in almost two months, according to data compiled by Bloomberg — and traded 0.4% weaker at 129.89 per dollar by 6:23 p.m. in Nairobi. The yield on the nation’s 2031 dollar bonds fell 0.33 cents on the dollar to 96.73 cents.

At least 50 people have died and more than 400 have been hurt since the protests erupted in mid-June over the government’s plan to introduce levies on items ranging from bread to diapers, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights said in a statement on Tuesday. A further 59 people have either been abducted or are missing, while 682 have been arrested, it said.

President William Ruto sought to quell the protests by scrapping the proposed taxes, after demonstrators stormed parliament on June 25. He’s also sacked almost his entire cabinet and accepted the resignation of the chief of police in response to the demonstrations.

The agitation has since morphed to a movement that’s demanding a total overhaul of how the nation is governed, with calls for Ruto himself to step down.

While Ruto had said there would be talks this week with activists, opposition leaders, religious groups and civil society groups on creating a broad-based political formation to resolve the crisis, it remained unclear on Tuesday what the status is of those discussions. The process has yet to start as many of the protesters have rejected any consultations.