Ruto had pledged that no protests would take place, saying he would take opposition leader Raila Odinga “head-on.”
The opposition in a statement condemned the arrests of seven elected leaders and two close associates of Odinga, calling it a “desperate attempt” by the Ruto administration to paralyse the opposition.
Businesses and schools in Nairobi were closed as police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse protesters.
Demonstrations were reported in several other parts of the country including the western counties of Kisumu, Migori and Kisii where the opposition enjoys huge support.
See pictures below:
Doctors without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, MSF) responders carry a young boy to an ambulance, as residents said he was wounded in the leg by a stray bullet while standing outside his home in Mathare area. [Brian Inganga/AP Photo]People clear the road during clashes in the Mathare area. [Brian Inganga/AP Photo]A riot police officer fires tear gas to disperse demonstrators in Nairobi. [Daniel Irungu/EPA]Riot police detain a supporter of Kenya’s opposition leader Raila Odinga during protests in Nairobi. [Thomas Mukoya/Reuters]It is the third time this month that opposition leader Raila Odinga has staged mass rallies against a government he says is illegitimate and to blame for a cost-of-living crisis. [Brian Inganga/AP Photo]Residents carry a man who they said was wounded in the leg by a stray bullet as he sat near his house, during clashes between police and protesters in the Mathare area. [AP Photo]The government has accused the opposition of derailing efforts to improve Kenya’s finances, with the foreign minister dismissing the demonstrations as the work of “economic saboteurs disguised as protests against the cost of living”. [Brian Inganga/AP Photo]
