At least two people have lost their lives and six others sustained injuries during clashes between Kenya’s police and protesters demanding the dissolution of the country’s electoral commission prior to next year’s presidential election.
The casualties occurred on Monday in the western Kenyan city of Kisumu as police opened fire to disperse protesters during the latest in a series of rallies by opposition groups and their supporters demanding that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) be scrapped for allegedly being biased.
Carrying banners, the protesters blocked the roads with burning tires and stones in both Kisumu and the country’s capital of Nairobi, and chanted the slogan “IEBC must go.”
“We have confirmed two people shot dead. We are yet to establish the circumstances,” said Dennis Onyango, a spokesman for Kenya's main opposition group, the Coalitions for Reforms and Democracy (CORD).
The Red Cross in the East African country said six protesters suffering from gunshot wounds had been taken to hospital.
The weekly demonstrations, held every Monday since late April, are organized by CORD, which has vowed to keep up the protests in Nairobi and other regions despite the Kenyan government’s warning against street rallies.
Last week, the opposition suspended its protests to hold talks with the Kenyan government in an attempt to defuse tensions but their meeting yielded no results.
The opposition, led by former Kenyan premier, Raila Odinga, accuses the electoral commission of being biased and failing to act on their complaints over the country’s last presidential election in 2013, citing a series of irregularities that skewed the results.
The next election in August 2017 is shaping up as a rematch of the 2013 election, with Odinga expected to unseat incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta.
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