Organizers of the nationwide protests in Kenya called for more nonviolent marches against the highly unpopular tax hikes on Wednesday, while a state-funded rights body announced that an investigation would be conducted.
Tensions sharply increased on Tuesday as police opened fire on protestors who stormed parliament. Last week, thousands of people marched across the nation against tax increases in largely peaceful rallies led by young people.
The shocking scenes that left parts of parliament gutted and on fire, along with hundreds of injuries, shocked Kenyans and forced President William Ruto's administration to call in the military.
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But demonstrators vowed to hit the streets again Thursday as they called for the bill to be scrapped.
"Tomorrow we march peacefully again as we wear white, for all our fallen people," protest organiser Hanifa Adan said on X.
"You cannot kill all of us."
Demonstrators shared "Tupatane Thursday" ("we meet Thursday" in Swahili), alongside the hashtag #Rejectfinancebill2024 on social media.
"The government does not care about us because they shot us with live bullets," Steve, 40, who was at the parliament Tuesday, told AFP.
Ruto "victimised innocent people", he said, adding he would march on Thursday: "I expect more violence and chaos."
Roseline Odede, chairwoman of the state-funded Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, said "we have recorded 22 deaths", adding that they would launch an investigation.
"This is the largest number of deaths (in) a single day protest," she said, adding that 19 people had died in the capital Nairobi.
"We have over 300 injured in our records and over 50 arrests," she added.
Earlier, Simon Kigondu, president of the Kenya Medical Association, said he had never before seen "such level of violence against unarmed people."
An official at Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi said Wednesday that medics were treating "160 people... some of them with soft tissue injuries, some of them with bullet wounds".
- 'Violence and anarchy' -
In posts online, protest organisers shared fundraising efforts to support those hurt in the demonstrations.
Ruto warned late Tuesday that his government would take a tough line against "violence and anarchy", likening some of the demonstrators to "criminals".
"It is not in order or even conceivable that criminals pretending to be peaceful protesters can reign terror against the people, their elected representatives and the institutions established under our constitution and expect to go scot-free," he said.
Shortly before his address, Defence Minister Aden Bare Duale announced that the army had been brought in to tackle "the security emergency" in the country.
A heavy police presence was deployed around parliament early on Wednesday, according to an AFP reporter, the smell of tear gas still in the air.
A policeman standing in front of the broken barricades to the complex told AFP he had watched the scenes unfold on TV.
"It was madness, we hope it will be calm today," he said.
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