Firebrand lawyer Miguna Miguna has condemned the government after anti-riot police allegedly brutalised online app taxi drivers who were demonstrating in Nairobi on Monday.
The drivers, who work for US-based Uber, Estonian company Bolt and locally owned Little Cab, were protesting unfair commissions and at the same time accusing the firms of going against a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) they signed in July 2018.
The taxi operators had gathered at Uhuru Park ready to march to the office of Transport Cabinet Secretary James Macharia and to City Hall to seek an audience with Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko when police dispersed them.
The security officers lobbed tear gas canisters at them forcing the drivers to scamper for safety, some leaving their vehicles behind.
Miguna condemned the act and accused President Uhuru Kenyatta of "unleashing class war against the poor".
In a tweet on Tuesday, the lawyer noted it was common for police to brutalise students and workers whenever they gather at Uhuru Park in readiness for protests.
He questioned why governors, who also demonstrated on Monday, had police escort as they marched from the Intercontinental Hotel to the Supreme Court.
The county bosses were joined by Senators and Members of County Assemblies (MCA) to protest against the stalemate on the Division of Revenue Bill, 2019.
"Despot Uhuru Kenyatta has unleashed class war against the poor. Uber drivers were beaten up, brutalised, humiliated and locked up by police the same way students and workers have been at Uhuru Park but governors had police escort as they marched yesterday," Miguna posted.