Police say protests were co-opted by ‘suspects’ engaging in ‘criminal activities’.

Kenyan police have arrested more than 270 people who they said were masquerading as protesters and suspected of going on a criminal rampage during antigovernment rallies in the country.

“Security forces across the country singled out suspects found engaging in criminal activities in the guise of protesting and took them to custody,” the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) said in a statement posted on X late on Tuesday.

It said 204 suspects were arrested in Nairobi, the capital, and another 68 in other areas of the country.

“The DCI has further deployed scrupulous investigators across the affected regions to pursue suspects captured on CCTV cameras and mobile phone recordings violently robbing, stealing and destroying properties and businesses of innocent citizens,” the statement added.

During today’s demonstrations that saw massive properties destroyed by various criminal elements, security forces across the country singled out suspects found engaging in criminal activities in the guise of protesting, and took them to custody.

In Nairobi and its environs, 204… pic.twitter.com/pHEbGvjggo

— DCI KENYA (@DCI_Kenya) July 2, 2024

Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki also condemned the protests, describing them as an “orgy of violence”, warning that the government would take action against anyone engaging in “anarchic chaos and cruel plunder”.

“This reign of terror against the people of Kenya and the impunity of dangerous criminal gangs must end at whatever cost,” he said.

Riot police used tear gas and charged at stone-throwing protesters in central Nairobi and across Kenya on Tuesday in widespread unrest since at least two dozen protesters died in clashes last week.

The demonstrations began against a controversial finance bill that contained new taxes, adding to the hardships of people already suffering a cost-of-living crisis.

While President William Ruto later abandoned the measure, protesters have since called for his resignation in a wider campaign against his rule, using the hashtag “RutoMustGo”.

They have also rejected his calls for dialogue.

The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) said 39 people had been killed and 361 injured during two weeks of rallies, with the worst violence occurring in Nairobi on June 25.

The KNCHR on Monday also condemned the use of force against demonstrators as “excessive and disproportionate”.

In Mombasa, Milan Waudo told the Reuters news agency, “People are dying in the streets, and the only thing he can talk about is money. We are not money. We are people. We are human beings.

“He [Ruto] needs to care about his people, because if he can’t care about his people then we don’t need him in that chair.”

Reporting from Nairobi, Al Jazeera’s Zein Brasravi said the rallies are a “reflection” of the anger that people are feeling after the deaths of protesters.

“Protesters here say that they feel that their voices are still not heard and the government still doesn’t understand why they’re coming out and protesting,” he said on Wednesday.

Activists blamed Tuesday’s violence on infiltrators they said had been unleashed by the government to discredit their movement and said it was now time to disperse.

Still, more demonstrations have been called for Thursday and Sunday.

The Netherlands has a different prime minister for the first time in 14 years as Dutch King Willem-Alexander swore in the country’s new government Tuesday, more than seven months after elections dominated by a far-right, anti-Islam party.

Dick Schoof, former head of the Dutch intelligence agency and counterterrorism office, signed the official royal decree at Huis Ten Bosch Palace, saying he “declared and promised” to uphold his duties as the country’s prime minister. The 67-year-old was formally installed alongside 15 other ministers who make up the country’s right-leaning coalition.

FORMER INTELLIGENCE CHIEF NOMINATED AS NEW PRIME MINISTER BY THE NETHERLANDS’ INCOMING GOVERNMENT

The anti-immigration party of firebrand Geert Wilders won the largest share of seats in elections last year but it took 223 days to form a government.

The new coalition quickly faced criticism of its marquee anti-immigration policies — by its own party members, as well as opposition groups. Protesters gathered in front of the palace where the ceremony took place on Tuesday, with one woman carrying a sign asking: “Are we democratically getting rid of our democracy?”

The four parties in the coalition are Wilders’ Party for Freedom, outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s center-right People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, the populist Farmer Citizen Movement and the centrist New Social Contract party.

The formal agreement creating the new coalition, titled “Hope, courage and pride,” introduces strict measures on asylum-seekers, scraps family reunification for refugees and seeks to reduce the number of international students studying in the country.

Opposition from other coalition partners prevented the controversial Wilders from taking the prime minister’s job. During the monthslong negotiations, he backpedaled on several of his most extreme views, including withdrawing draft legislation that would have banned mosques, Islamic schools and the Quran.

For the first time since World War II, the Netherlands is now led by a prime minister who is not aligned with a political party. Before serving as chief of the country’s top intelligence agency, Schoof was previously the counterterror chief and the head of the country’s Immigration and Naturalization Service.

The other government ministers were sworn in Tuesday according to seniority of their departments. One minister, Femke Wiersma who will head the agriculture portfolio, made her declaration in Frisian — the country’s second official language alongside Dutch.

Although the November elections were widely seen as a win for the far right, political youth organizations are already pushing back on the ambitions of the new government. Ahead of the swearing-in ceremony, youth groups from six parties, including two of the coalition partners, called for a softening on asylum plans.

“Although the influx must be limited, it is of great importance that we receive people here fairly and with dignity,” Eva Brandemann, chairperson of the youth wing of the New Social Contract, told Dutch public broadcaster NOS.

Her counterpart in Rutte’s party, which brought down the government last summer over concerns about the number of family reunifications for refugees, said that problems stemmed from administration, not migration.

“The problem will only get bigger if you don’t fix it,” Mauk Bresser, the chair of the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy youth organization told The Associated Press.

While Bresser thinks the number of refugees coming to the Netherlands should be reduced, his group says those already here should have their claims processed in a timely fashion and be given the opportunity to integrate.

The new agreement slashes the country’s education budget by nearly 1 billion euros — about $1.06 billion — prompting pushback from universities. “Students will not get the education they deserve,” Nivja de Jong, a languages professor at Leiden University, told the AP. She’s part of a group of academics pushing back against the proposed cuts by delivering lunchtime talks about the importance of their research.

The new government will now spend the summer firming the coalition agreement into a governing plan.

The Netherlands isn’t the only country seeing a rise of anti-immigration, far-right views. Last month’s EU elections saw a similar shift, and French voters face a decisive choice on July 7 in the runoff of snap parliamentary elections that could see the country’s first far-right government since the World War II Nazi occupation.