Susan Otieno, Executive Director of ActionAid Kenya, said:
“It is outrageous that protesters, mainly young people standing up against an unfair bill that was drafted without adequate public participation, have been clamped down with such heavy-handedness, resulting in fatalities. The loss of lives is a profound tragedy and a wound on the nation’s soul. Law enforcement agencies must exercise restraint in their efforts to maintain law and order; now is not the time to add gasoline to an already enflamed situation through a disproportionate show of force.
The ball is in the government’s court to open channels of constructive dialogue with the protesters and the citizens’ collective to find amicable solutions to the challenges we are facing and build a stronger, more just Kenya for all.”
[ENDS]
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Susan is available for media interviews. Please contact the press office to arrange.
About ActionAid
ActionAid is a global federation working with more than 41 million people living in more than 71 of the world’s poorest countries. We want to see a just, fair, and sustainable world, in which everybody enjoys the right to a life of dignity, and freedom from poverty and oppression. We work to achieve social justice and gender equality and to eradicate poverty.