Pigs, Water Cannons And Teargas At “Occupy Parliament” Protest

About midday on Tuesday May the 14th 2013, the air is tense but calm outside Kenya’s Parliament buildings. Protesters adorned in white T shirts and black trousers gather as a battery of anti-riot police in full armor watch sternly. The protesters aim at voicing disapproval of Members of Parliament’s quest for higher salaries. The same MPs are also seeking to send the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) members home for ‘standing in their way’ , a move that hasn’t augured well with the taxpaying public. And despite the protest being peaceful, the police were clearly geared for a fight as they deliberately provoked members of the public and the press by shoving them about. Among the people in the crowd were Boniface Mwangi, the protest organizer, activist Okiya Omtata and former Constitutional Review Commission of Kenya boss Prof. Yash Pal Ghai who led chants against the MPs.

The arrival of a truck with pigs, piglets and raw blood (symbolizing parliamentarian greed) momentarily took the police by surprise but they recovered and took charge of the situation. The heckling and barring of parliamentarians’ vehicles from accessing Parliament gave the police their moment of glory and they promptly fired tear gas canisters at the crowd to disperse them. A little while later, they made a tactical retreat as the protesters regrouped only for a water engine to ominously emerge from the direction of Uhuru Highway and drench them in itchy water. One wonders where these resources usually are when fires overwhelm firefighters in the city. Other water engines followed suit as more canisters were fired and protesters forcefully cleared off the streets within the precincts of parliament. In the melee that followed, Boniface and his close associates were taken into police custody.

SRC chairperson Sarah Serem has been at loggerheads with the MPs opposing her commission’s MPs new salaries now standing at KES 532,500.This figure is a slash from the previous KES 856,000 the 10th parliament took home. This has seen Igembe South MP Mithika Linturi table a petition in parliament on May 2nd seeking to remove members of the SRC for ‘serious violation of the Constitution and gross misconduct in the performance of their functions’. The tussle rages on in Parliament. And the revolution will continue to be documented.

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REPORT BY Mark Namaswa