Nairobi Locked Down as Kenya Marks Saba Saba Under a Blanket of Checkpoints
Nairobi woke on Tuesday to a city under siege from its own security apparatus. Police checkpoints ringed the Kenyan capital from dawn, major roads were cut, and the central business district opened for almost nobody, as the country marked Saba Saba braced for trouble it hoped would not come.
The disruption was felt across the city long before any protester raised a placard. Thousands of motorists and commuters were caught in massive traffic snarl-ups as police mounted roadblocks and intensified security screening on Thika Road, Jogoo Road, Mombasa Road, Waiyaki Way and Lang'ata Road, with access to the city centre virtually blocked for cars and matatus alike. Shops in the CBD stayed shuttered; the US embassy issued a security alert.
Behind the lockdown lies a standoff over the day itself. The Grassroots Economic Justice Movement said it had formally notified the Inspector General of Police of its intention to march peacefully to Parliament, where organisers planned to hand over a petition on alleged extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and excessive use of force by security officers. But Nairobi's regional police commander insisted no demonstration had been approved, warning bluntly: 'If you gather tomorrow anywhere, we will treat it as an unlawful assembly and we will deal with it.'
The legal position — Kenya's constitution requires notification, not permission, for assemblies — sits at the heart of the dispute, as it has through a year of youth-led protest that has repeatedly ended in bloodshed. Last year's Saba Saba turned deadly, with at least 11 people killed and Nairobi locked down.
July 7 commemorates the 1990 protests that forced Kenya's return to multiparty democracy. Thirty-six years on, the sight of a capital sealed off to prevent citizens petitioning their Parliament is, for the movement's supporters, precisely the point they are trying to make.
