Even President William Ruto said it in the evening when he finally came out: it was one of the darkest days in the history of democratic Kenya. The day of protests against the financial bill, which began peacefully by the young people of the so-called 'Generation Z' in the capital and in many other cities of the country, gradually degenerated due to a series of concomitant causes, leading to the incredible and regrettable episode of the assault on the national parliament, which was also set on fire, fortunately limited to only one wing. Worse was the office of the Nairobi governor, Johnson Sakaja, set on fire along with the administrative offices. Even worse to at least 10 demonstrators (although officially there is talk of 5 victims) who, according to the Reuters news agency, died, in addition to 13 seriously injured, 52 arrests and 21 mysterious disappearances of activists and influencers, as reported by Amnesty International.

Why did protests announced as peaceful degenerate?

The reasons are to be found in the repressive methods of the security forces, who threw tear gas and fired rubber bullets to 'urge' protesters not to approach the centre of the capital to take their protest under the parliament. One of these tear gas shells also hit the sister of former US president Barack Obama, who had joined the demonstration.

The other trigger was the news that the majority of parliamentarians approved the controversial finance bill that contains heavy taxes that will burden citizens. The protest became furious and a group of troublemakers broke through the barrier of officers guarding the parliament building, storming it and setting fire to a section of it, amidst a general stampede of politicians and staff.

The police consequently started to use live bullets and even came down on the Red Cross volunteers, who were trying to set up makeshift tents outside a church to treat injured protesters.

In all this, there was also a short circuit on the Internet, which, according to Safaricom, was due to damage to its cables, although various hypotheses were circulating on the net. In the late afternoon, the Ministry of Defence published a communiqué in the Official Gazette stating that the situation was defined as a 'national emergency' for security, and therefore the army would join the police in operations to restore normality.

Ruto called the day 'a betrayal orchestrated by infiltrated criminal gangs' and, while once again opening up to dialogue with the country's youth, said he would act firmly to stop the 'violence and anarchy' of those who financed this day of protests.

The demonstrations outside the capital and especially on the coast, where demonstrators marched peacefully, chanting chants and chanting slogans, were much quieter, with isolated episodes of provocation, rather than violence, and the police ready to respond in an all too decisive manner. But this too is Africa.

We will see what happens, politically and socially, in the coming days. Besides dialogue, the ball is in the president's court who will have to decide whether to sign the budget passed in parliament or to dialogue with Generation Z.