Yesterday the country woke up to yet another day of commemoration, marking 35 years since the famous Saba Saba Movement, first held on July 7, 1990. The movement began as a protest, demanding multiparty democracy against the then-government’s autocratic regime. Despite the protest being banned, key opposition leaders still convened in Nairobi. This resulted in police retaliation, which was characterised by arbitrary arrests and fatalities from police brutality.

Thirty-five years later, history is repeating itself with people rallying in widespread discontentment with the current government.  Yesterday began with the blocking and barricading of the major roads leading to the Nairobi Central Business District (CBD) ahead of the planned protests. The protesters were not relentless, as this move was countered by the generation of a navigation app that would give live updates on the active barricades and police formation maps within Nairobi. Groups of people started gathering in various estates within Nairobi, and by 11 am, reports of face-offs between the police and the protesters started hitting different newsrooms. The Secretary General of the Kenya Medical Association soon thereafter issued a statement condemning the blocking of roads as medics were unable to reach casualties from the protests.

The protests were infiltrated by unknown assailants who were seen looting shops not only in Nairobi but also in other parts of the country. As the day went on, the degree of police measures turned extreme, with the police not only using teargas cannisters and water cannons, but live bullets as well which is only permitted as measures of last resort. This resulted into quite a good number of fatalities as the first casualty was caught by a stray bullet while on his way back from work. By sundown, 19 deaths were reported with close to 44 injuries and 34 arrests. A 14 year-old boy was reported to have succumbed to gunshot wounds during the police confrontation.

A group of individuals with unmarked vehicles who were believed to be police officers in plain clothing were seen entering the streets and shooting directly at protesters. This move was in total disregard of the High Court  judgement that was issued in 30th April this year that declared that the use of plain clothes police officers to manage protests defeats the ends of Article 37 of the Constitution of Kenya 2010 on exercising the right to assembly, demonstration, picketing and petition a public Authority, and subsequently cannot be used to subdue persons exercising such rights. According to local news, the vehicles were termed as “Death Squads in Subarus.”

Goons who were seen infiltrating the protests were also believed to have been state sponsored with a Kenyan CNN news reporter confirming that a Nairobi politician offered the paid goons a bonus if they attacked him while covering the protests. The reporter also stated that pro-government voices were calling for his arrest.

At this point, human rights atrocities in Kenya are beyond mere sporadic events, as they tend to follow a certain sequence. When the country commemorated the June 25th finance bill protests last monh, the same set of events took place and the number of deaths has even doubled this time around. All of these are taking place in the backdrop of existing legal frameworks that are supposed to protect the people. The question that now lingers is that when the duty-bearer has turned against the right-holder, where should the people turn?