KISUMU, Kenya July 19 – At least three people were shot dead Wednesday as police battled protesters in anti-government demonstrations called by Opposition leader Raila Odinga over the high cost of living.
An official at the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Hospital in Kisumu confirmed that two bodies were in the hospital’s mortuary while locals said the third was taken to a private hospital.
“Two bodies have been recorded at the morgue with gunshot wounds,” the CEO of Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Hospital, Dr George Rae said.
14 other people-all men-were admitted to the hospital with gunshot wounds.
Odinga has vowed protests will continue Thursday.
According to Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki, more than 300 people were arrested during the demonstrations in various towns and are set to face charges.
“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, assaulting law enforcers among other crimes,” Kindiki said in a statement but did not speak of casualties.
In a joint statement, Kindiki and his Education counterpart Ezekiel Machogu ordered the re-opening of schools which remained closed Wednesday over the riots.
“The government has now undertaken an evaluation of the current security situation in various parts of the country including in Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu counties and adequate measures have been taken to guarantee the safety and security of learners and their schools across the country,” they said.
The opposition has vowed to stage three straight days of protests against President William Ruto’s government, alarming the international community which has joined calls for a political solution to the crisis.
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.
It is the third time this month that Odinga has staged mass rallies against a government he says is illegitimate and to blame for a cost-of-living crisis.
The government in turn has accused the opposition of derailing efforts to improve Kenya’s finances, with Foreign Minister Alfred Mutua on Wednesday dismissing the demonstrations as the work of “economic saboteurs disguised as protests against the cost of living”
