Members of Parliament (MPs) were seen leaving Parliament Buildings as the demonstrations to commemorate the death of at least 60 youthful people during the 2024 Finance Bill protest, rocked Nairobi’s Central Business District (CBD).
In a video shared by a local station, vehicles belonging to MPs were seen leaving the Parliament Building as demonstrations took over major streets in the CBD despite an initial barricade that restricted movement into the town centre.
The change of programme comes after the legislators resolved to extend the afternoon session on Wednesday, June 25, 2025, to midnight to ensure all the house business was handled ahead of their planned recess.
Cordoned off
While Parliament Road was cordoned off to unauthorised access, the situation has quickly escalated, seeing the legislators leave the Assembly houses as the protest continues.
In the morning of Wednesday, June 25, 2025, police officers blocked access points to the city centre and controlled vehicular traffic into the CBD.
Routes leading into the CBD, such as Thika Superhighway, Valley Road, Ngong Road, Haile Selassie Avenue, and Globe Roundabout, were also blocked.
As the day wore on, the protests gathered steam, filling the streets with thousands of youths, who engaged police officers in constant running battles.
The protests equally kicked off in various major cities and towns around the country, effectively putting businesses into a pause.
Parliament breach
During the 2024 protests, MPs were forced to flee after a group of demonstrators breached the Parliament security and gained entry into the chambers.
Parliamentary orderlies rushed to funnel the legislators into a secret tunnel that runs from the Parliament Buildings to the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC), from where they were evacuated from imminent danger.
The invasion came just minutes after word went out that more than two-thirds of the MPs had voted in favour of punitive revenue-generation measures proposed by the Treasury in 2024.
In the aftermath, the Ministry of Defence deployed the military to quell the demonstrations, which President William Ruto indicated had been hijacked by criminals.
He vowed to crack down on the sponsors of the protests, calling for stern police action on the youthful demonstrators, who were calling for good governance.
