Kenyan police arrested 46 members of a protest against the Kenyan president. The protesters had organized three days of continuous protests and had paused them because their leader had agreed to meet with some of the president’s representatives. However, the protests resumed because the leader accused the reps of not negotiating in good faith. This led to the police firing tear gas into the protests and arresting members. These protests have been organized because the Kenyans believe that the president committed election fraud and the price of living in Kenya has recently been skyrocketing.
Kenya, which like most of Africa, was formerly a colonized country. And though they’ve eventually gained independence and some sense of autonomy, they, like again most African countries, still suffer from the effects of colonization, one of these being establishing a government. Kenya has dealt with rampant corruption in its government, and by extension, its politicians with: bribery, rigged elections, and etc. The Kenyan population has had enough in this case and is now protesting. But like most corrupt governments, Kenya has silenced these protests with violent methods and negotiations have stalled, again due to an unwillingness by the Kenyan government to relinquish power. I expect protests to continue and increase, but I’d also expect the government to use more and more violent methods and eventually brutality like we see so often when people finally stand up to their corrupt governments.
To connect back to class, Kenya was ruled by the British empire and their colonial rule tends to mess the things they leave behind up. The formation of Kenya as a state began after the British withdrew from their colonies in Africa and allowed the states to set up their own governments.