{"id":44010,"date":"2026-08-28T13:10:55","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T11:10:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=44010"},"modified":"2026-08-28T13:11:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T11:11:26","slug":"kenya-police-fire-tear-gas-to-disperse-traders-protesting-import-duty-hike","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/kenya-police-fire-tear-gas-to-disperse-traders-protesting-import-duty-hike\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenya police fire tear gas to disperse traders protesting import duty hike"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Police fired tear gas to disperse small-scale traders protesting against an import duty hike, \u200ba Reuters witness saw on Friday, while hundreds \u200cof businesses closed in central Nairobi.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Kenya Revenue Authority said its decision to raise the duty with effect from \u200bAugust 20 aimed to curb under-declaration and undervaluation \u200bof imports, which it said disadvantages compliant \u2060businesses and local manufacturers.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Traders say the change would \u200braise the cost of clearing goods and hurt small \u200bbusinesses that rely on consolidated shipments to reduce import costs.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;We are standing for our citizenship and our right to do \u200bbusiness and our right to build our future,&#8221; \u200bsaid Muturi Kariuki, who joined the demonstrations.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Kariuki was among the traders \u200cwho \u2060closed their businesses in order to protest. Others did so for safety reasons, traders said.<\/div>\n<div>Police did not immediately respond to calls or requests for comment.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The \u200bduty change raises \u200bthe minimum \u2060customs benchmark for a consolidated 40-foot container to $24 700.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":38037,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-44010","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":"Police fired tear gas to disperse small-scale traders protest"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/44010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/44010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44011,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/44010\/revisions\/44011"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=44010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}