TUESDAY, 8.00AM
POLICE broke up rallies in Kenyan towns yesterday, firing rubber bullets and beating pro-reform demonstrators with truncheons and pick-axe handles in violent clashes which left nine people dead — some of them children — and many injured.
Demonstrations and rallies were held in 56 towns around the country, demanding constitutional reforms before presidential and parliamentary elections are held later this year. In Nairobi, demonstrators gathered in Uhuru Park to demand changes from the autocratic government of President Daniel Arap Moi.
After police dispersed them in a ferocious charge, hundreds regrouped to march on the business centre chanting “Moi must go”. Police were reported kicking and beating protesters even as they lay on the ground. The Rev Timothy Njoya, a key opposition leader, was seen beaten by police armed with pickaxe handles.
Riot police from the paramilitary General Service Unit stormed Nairobi’s Catholic All Saints cathedral, firing teargas inside and beating demonstrators attending a service there. “We were in the middle of the service when they broke in and fired teargas in the house of God,” said the Rev Peter Njoka. Several members of parliament and leaders of the reform movement were attending the service, and were beaten up by police.
Witnesses reported that police shot dead a young boy at Thika, 35km from the capital Nairobi. The police denied the reports, and said they were “not active” in the town of Thika. Police themselves reported the death of a young boy found bleeding in Uhuru Park, but again denied responsibility.
Police also reported that prison authorities shot dead one man after a mob tried to storm the main prison in the town of Nyahuru. Another man was shot dead by police after a crowd stormed the main bank in the same town.