Barack Obama’s half-sister was hit with tear-gas on Tuesday in Kenya as she rallied with protesters demanding that legislators vote against a bill to raise taxes.
Auma Obama, a Kenyan activist and half-sister of the former president, was shown wiping her face and struggling to breathe as she spoke with CNN moments after she said she was hit with tear-gas while demonstrating in Nairobi.
“I can’t believe that these young people are just trying to demonstrate for their rights,” Obama said in the interview with CNN. She said she had attended the protest to support the young demonstrators, “and to tell them that we understand that they need to use their voices and we are being tear-gassed. We’re being tear-gassed! We have flags and banners, nothing else.”
Thousands of protesters swarmed Kenya’s Parliament after lawmakers passed the tax hike on Tuesday and fled through a tunnel as protesters stormed the building, The Associated Press reported. At least five people were fatally shot, dozens were injured and 21 people are missing after the protesters clashed with police, according to a joint statement from Amnesty International and other Kenyan civic groups.