Mass protests took place in Kenya on Thursday after police has accused the US government of funding political activists. Streets of Nairobi got filled up with protesters’ demonstrations, aimed against leaders who they say behave like children. In Kenya such state of mind is called the “diaper mentality.”
Previously, Kenyan authorities banned the protests, saying that those actions promote the “threat of terrorism.” In
addition to that, Kenyan officials have accused the US Aid agency,
better known as USAID of funding political activists. They have also
reached the foreign ministry to gather the USAID officials in order to
provide an official response for those arguments.
Meanwhile,
the protest leaders neglect such accusations. According to them, Kenyan
authorities have nothing to worry about, as they all have military
defense on their side. Boniface Mwangi who is one of the protesters
states, “So if they want to claim that I'm being funded, then they
should say who's funding me. Name names. I can't topple the government
on my own. But they're afraid of what is actually a popular uprising by
the people who are disadvantaged.”
As soon as the
protesters got to the Nairobi's Uhuru Park, law enforcement officers
started tearing gas and dispersing the crowd. During that, at least five
people were arrested. Reverend Timothy Njoya, a
well-known activist comments on the situation:
“So we came here to make a statement on the state of the nation. To assess how much we've been able to accomplish, but it seems that the police have made the statement for us, and they've made it very loudly and clearly.”
Kenyan
activists are known for criticizing their government not only for their
restrictiveness, but also for high level of corruption, controlled
media and many more. Even with protests being shut down, the activists
claim they are not going to be silent for long.
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