KENYAN ANTI-GOVERNMENT PROTESTS FLARE UP IN NAIROBI- Teargas and arrests as Government sends in the troops

Police officers and protesters clashed in the central business district of Nairobi on Thursday (June 27). Police deployed tear gas in attempts to disperse the crowds of anti-government protesters, and made arrests.

Protesters vowed on Thursday to keep up their demonstrations against President William Ruto’s government despite his pledge to withdraw proposed tax hikes that prompted a week of deadly unrest.

It was not clear how far protesters would be mollified by Ruto’s Wednesday decision to withdraw the finance bill, a day after clashes killed at least 23 people and saw parliament being stormed briefly.

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.

Lacking a formal leadership structure, however, protest supporters were divided on how far to carry the demonstrations.