NAIROBI, Kenya
Kenyan police out of uniform and with no official identification fired live rounds at demonstrators at the country's parliament complex in Nairobi on June 25, Amnesty International said on Wednesday.
That day saw "the use of officers without identity badges, uniforms or vehicles marked as police cars actively shooting at protesters and arresting others", Irũngũ Houghton, Amnesty's Kenya director, told reporters as the rights group published a press release detailing its reconstruction of the events.
More than 50 people were
killed in months-long protests over a controversial finance bill, creating
President William Ruto's biggest crisis since taking office in 2022. Ruto
abandoned the legislation in June and sacked almost his entire cabinet.
The rallies began peacefully,
later turning violent. On June 25, the bill was scheduled for a third reading,
and some demonstrators briefly stormed parliament. The police opened fire.
The rights group said its
reconstruction of the day's events was conducted with five partners and based
on interviews with 23 witnesses and analysis of dozens of videos and
photographs.
As unarmed demonstrators
entered parliament, men in civilian clothes were "seen on camera firing
rifles and handguns towards the crowd and in the air", Amnesty said.
"Researchers counted at
least 45 shots fired within 56 seconds."
Three witnesses saw at least
six bodies of protesters who they believed were shot dead at the parliament
complex, the rights group said.
"I saw my friend going
down," said one person interviewed for the report, whose name was
withheld. "He was shot."
Amnesty's report said images
showed groups of men in civilian clothes carrying weapons and working alongside
the police.
Amnesty also said Kenyan
police that day unlawfully fired tear gas and beat and arbitrarily detained
peaceful demonstrators, while some protesters threw back tear gas canisters at
officers, hurled stones, broke windows and took flags.
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