Kenyan police fired teargas at dozens of protesters and blocked off streets leading to the presidential palace on Thursday as small demonstrations continued in several cities, even after the president bowed to pressure to withdraw a tax hike bill.
Turnout was well down from the height of the mass rallies sparked by the bill over the past week. President William Ruto withdrew the legislation on Wednesday, a day after clashes killed at least 23 people and parliament was briefly stormed and set alight.
Ruto is grappling with the most serious crisis of his two-year-old presidency as the youth-led protest movement has grown rapidly from online condemnations of the tax hikes into mass rallies demanding a political overhaul.
Hundreds of protesters gathered in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa and the western city of Kisumu as police erected roadblocks around the presidential palace in the capital Nairobi.
What began as online opposition to proposed tax increases has rapidly escalated into mass rallies demanding wider political reforms and Ruto’s resignation.
While some protesters said they would cease demonstrations after the bill’s withdrawal, others vowed to keep up the pressure until Ruto quits.
Protests appeared smaller than Tuesday’s mass rallies, which brought tens of thousands onto the streets in Nairobi and other cities.
