Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o has called out Kenyan authorities for their use of force during the deadly anti-tax protests that hit the East African nation in June. Per BBC, rights groups claim that the country’s police force subjected protesters to violence, with several of them losing their lives or being abducted.
Nyong’o, who was born in Mexico to Kenyan parents, told the news outlet that it was “chilling to know that this government is resorting to tactics that I had thought had been left in the past.”
Nyong’o’s father, Anyang’ Nyong’o, is a county governor in Kenya and acting leader of the opposition Orange Democratic Movement (ODM). The 12 Years a Slave star’s father was also jailed and tortured during former president Daniel arap Moi’s regime.
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Anyang’ Nyong’o, who is also a political science professor, organized a protest with other academics against the Moi administration in the 1980s. Her family ultimately fled to Mexico after Nyong’o’s uncle went missing.
The Kenyan government in response to Nyong’o’s comments claimed that comparing two “very different” regimes was impossible, adding that it “regrets any death that occurred.” Nyong’o, 41, however, labeled the way the government responded to the protests as “upsetting.”
“The more things change. the more they stay the same… I don’t know how this story ends,” Nyong’o said. In the wake of the protests, the country’s ruling party appointed ODM members in an effort to appease the demonstrators.
A spokesperson for the Kenyan government, Isaac Mwaura, told BBC that they were “very co-operative with the protesters and acceded to the demands, including the president not assenting to the finance bill”
As previously reported by Face2Face Africa, protesters in Kenya had called on authorities to scrap the bill imposing new taxes as citizens were already suffering over the high cost of living. The protests were also spearheaded by the country’s youth.
“I am deeply grateful for the younger people who are on the front lines fighting for a different Kenya,” Nyong’o said.
