Kenya

Kenya's human rights body has given an updated death toll of 39 in the wake of protests against the much-hated financial reforms of President William Ruto's government.

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In a release on Monday (July 1) marking two weeks since the protests began, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) said 29 people have died and 361 were injured in relation to the protests.

Postmortems of most victims are yet to be conducted, it said.

The dead included 17 from capital Nairobi, four from Uasin Gishu and three each from Mombasa, Makuru and Kajiado.

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The report also said that there have been 32 cases of enforced or involuntary disappearances and 627 arrests of Anti-Finance Bill protesters.

What happened in Kenya?

The widely unpopular Finance Bill was aimed at shoring up the finances of the African country and stabilising its economy. It included several taxes for basic goods and reportedly even gave powers to authorities to control mobile money transactions.

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The protests intensified on June 25, when thousands of people entered the parliament building, leading to police firing and deaths. Part of the building was on fire as protesters, mostly youth, breached barriers to enter the parliament premises.

Later, the army was deployed to quell the violence and President Rutte returned the Finance Bill without signing it.

On the deployment of the Kenyan Defence Forces, the rights body reminded authorities that "national security should be pursued in compliance with the law and with utmost respect to the rule of law, democracy, human rights and fundamental freedoms."

(With inputs from agencies)