A Kenyan opposition legislator was shot dead in the capital Nairobi in what police have described as a “targeted and premeditated” crime.
MP Charles Were was shot on Wednesday night after his car stopped at a roundabout on a busy major road.
President William Ruto urged police to conduct a “thorough investigation” and said Thursday that those responsible “must be held to account.”
He was in the company of his driver and bodyguard when a motorcycle taxi approached their car, and a passenger disembarked and approached their car before firing at the MP, police said in a statement.
The legislator was reelected in 2022 to represent Kasipul constituency in western Kenya for the Orange Democratic Movement party.
Opposition leader Raila Odinga described Were as a “gallant son of the soil.”
Odinga was President Ruto’s main challenger in the 2022 general election.
Political tensions in Kenya have simmed down since last year, when the country saw a series of opposition-backed anti-government protests during which dozens of people died. Ruto later appointed members of Odinga’s party to the cabinet, and the two leaders signed a political pact in March this year.
Sierra Leone’s president, Julius Maada Bio, on Friday said recent anti-government protests that turned deadly were meant to overthrow his government.
He was addressing the nation for the first time since the protests that lead to the deaths of six police officers and at least 21 civilians.
The protests were over alleged economic hardships and bad governance by President Julius Maada Bio’s government.
The protesters, mainly youths had gained entry into the country’s Lungi airport after the military and police unsuccessfully tried to stop them.
Some of the protesters were demanding that President Bio must go.
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Police officers then used tear gas and in some cases guns to disperse the large crowds of protesters who were throwing rocks and burning tyres in the capital Freetown and several towns in the opposition’s northern heartland.
Residents accused the police on Wednesday of firing live bullets at the protesters resulting in violent clashes and the deaths.
In a statement ECOWAS said it “strongly condemns the violence that occurred in many locations in Sierra Leone and have led to loss of lives.”
ECOWAS called “on all to obey law and order and for the perpetrators of the violence to be identified and brought to justice, in accordance with the law.”
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President Bio said in his national address that “This was not a protest against the high cost of living occasioned by the ongoing global economic crisis.
“The chant of the insurrectionists was for a violent overthrow of the democratically elected government,” he said, assuring that the government would investigate all the deaths.
ECOWAS and partners hope there is no escalation from this civil unrest in Sierra Leone, which has not fully recovered from its bloody civil war of 1991 to 2002.
Zimbabwean Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa reacts as he arrives to present his budget at Parliament in Harare
HARARE (MaraviPost) – Zimbabwe’s ruling ZANU-PF party on Monday called the United States ambassador a “thug” and accused him of funding the opposition ahead of this week’s planned anti-government protests that authorities say are meant to overthrow the government.
Brian A. Nichols presented his credentials on July 19, 2018, as U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Zimbabwe.
Without providing evidence, ZANU-PF spokesman Patrick Chinamasa told reporters that U.S. ambassador to Harare, Brian Nichols, was involved in subversive activities to topple President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government.
Chinamasa’s comments echo the Robert Mugabe era, where the ZANU-PF government regularly accused the United States and Britain of seeking to dislodge it from power.
“He (Nichols) continues to engage in acts of undermining this republic and if he does so, if he continues engaging in acts of mobilising and funding disturbances, coordinating violence and training insurgents, our leadership will not hesitate to give him marching orders,” Chinamasa said.
“Diplomats should not behave like thugs, and Brian Nichols is a thug.”
The U.S. embassy in Harare did not immediately respond to Chinamasa’s comments.
Political tensions are rising fast in the southern African nation after activists called for demonstrations on July 31 against government corruption, which they blame for deepening the worst economic crisis in more than a decade.
Last month, the government summoned Nichols after a senior White House official said Zimbabwe was among “foreign adversaries” using the civil unrest in the United States following the death of George Floyd to interfere in U.S. affairs.
The U.S., Britain, E.U. embassies and the United Nations have all criticised Zimbabwe for the arrest of journalists and political challengers.
Relations between Zimbabwe and the West were promising when Mnangagwa replaced Mugabe after a coup in 2017, but have soured over the government’s human rights record.
Chinamasa urged party supporters to defend themselves from protesters and avoid a repeat of the deadly violence that followed post-elections demonstrations in August 2018 and the January 2019 protests over a steep fuel price hike.
“No, this time no. Use any means at your disposal to defend yourselves,” Chinamasa said.
Organisers say this week’s protests will be peaceful.
(Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Aurora Ellis) SourceL Reuters
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