Kenya has today seen unprecedented events as protests were carried out throughout the country. As reported before, the demonstrations have been going on for the better part of the last two weeks as Kenyans express their frustration towards the Finance Bill 2024 which just passed its second reading today.
The demonstrations that were held peacefully for the better of the day turned dark as a number of the protestors were able to push back the police in Nairobi and breach the Parliament Buildings based in the capital. This was followed by the destruction of some of the facilities in the buildings and police vehicles burnt. Unfortunately, several protesters have been shot dead with many more injured.
This has now been followed by various reports about the outage of the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, which has been the main platform that Kenyans used to communicate with one another during and before the protests. It’s not clear whether this is a total shutdown of the platform but many would assume that it is following what has happened in Nairobi and other major cities today.
Additionally, there are now reports of total internet outages in parts of the country. This is a precedent that had been feared by many even before the protests as a method to control the protests. We have been able to confirm this through the Thousand Eyes tracker which can detect internet outages globally. As it stands, it’s still not clear whether these are events following the protests or an order from the authorities.
This comes at a time when even some of the media houses have reported messages of intimidation from the government with threats of a shut down.
If you are experiencing any outages, we recommend that you access your VPN which could help you mask your IP and avoid the lack of access to your social media accounts.
The story is developing as the day goes on and we will continue to update as we get more information.
