Kenyan authorities say 355 people have been arrested across the country during demonstrations marking two years since the Gen Z anti-government protests, the BBC reported. The day, meant to honour those killed in that earlier unrest, instead unfolded under a heavy security clampdown that brought much of the capital to a standstill.
In central Nairobi, police began detaining people just outside parliament, the building that became the focal point of the unrest two years ago. Security forces had set up barricades and blocks across the city centre to stop any mass gathering, and only a handful of people managed to get through the cordon to reach the heart of town.
Those who did make it were mostly the families of protesters killed in the earlier demonstrations, alongside activists. They insisted they had come in peace, carrying flowers they wanted to lay in front of parliament to commemorate the dead, turning the act of leaving flowers into the central, defiant gesture of the day.
The commemoration reaches back to a violent chapter still raw in the country. Two years ago, mass protests filled these same streets, parliament was ultimately stormed and dozens of demonstrators were killed, grievances that the correspondent said have continued to simmer beneath the surface in the time since.
The scale of the response itself became the story, with Nairobi described as close to a complete lockdown simply because people wanted to mark the deaths. The tension is also unfolding against a wider political backdrop, with Kenya due to hold elections in about a year, setting the groundwork for how that contest at the ballot box will play out.