Kenyan MPs may still be reeling after anti-tax protesters overpowered police and invaded parliament on Tuesday – but two legislators are actually thankful to some of the invaders who went to their rescue during the ordeal.<\/p>\n
“I was very scared and I prayed to God as about 22 young protesters surrounded me,” MP Rose Museo, who uses crutches, told the BBC.<\/p>\n
She and her colleague Jackson Kosgei, who uses a wheelchair, were left stranded during the two-hour assault from which their colleagues escaped by scampering for safety through an underground tunnel.<\/p>\n
The youthful protesters smashed windows and eventually made their way into the chambers in unprecedented scenes that left parts of parliament badly damaged. Some even set part of the building on fire.<\/p>\n
As an opposition MP, Ms Museo had just voted against the bill they were angry about.<\/p>\n
When the protests began last week they were largely peaceful, with thousands of mainly young demonstrators marching in the capital, Nairobi, and across the country against a controversial finance bill that would have hiked taxes and introduced a slew of other levies.<\/p>\n
But tensions flared on Tuesday afternoon when the bill was passed by parliament – despite the demonstrations that had attracted much bigger numbers that day.<\/p>\n
Police officers opened fire on the crowds who had massed around parliament – and minutes after the MPs had voted, furious protesters broke into the assembly’s compound.<\/p>\n
“Everybody was gone and I couldn’t use the lifts because the power was cut off,” said Ms Museo, who was injured in a road accident in 2017.<\/p>\n