STUN grenades and tear gas were the order of the day in South Africa and Kenya on Monday, 20 March.
This after the people of the two countries embarked on a mass action against their governments.
Other countries which took to the streets were Tunisia, Senegal as well as Nigeria.
In South Africa, the second largest opposition party the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) led one of the biggest shutdowns in the history of the dawn of democracy.
The party was demanding the resignation of President Cyril Ramaphosa and the end to the rolling blackouts which have brought the country’s economy to its knees.
The members of the EFF started their protest at midnight on Monday, and by sunrise 87 people were reported to have been arrested by South African Police Service (SAPS).
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Party leader Julius Malema said South Africans were tired of load shedding being implementing daily, corruption and unemployment among other issues.
Malema said the shutdown could be the beginning of an unstoppable revolution. But Ramaphosa warned that the EFF’s planned protests were not a mere shutdown but an attempt to overthrow the government.
In Kenya, anti-riot police fired tear gas to disperse protesters gathered in the country’s Capital, Nairobi, for their day of action.
The protest was called by the opposition party to take a stand against the country's painful cost of living. The demonstrators vowed to protest until the police got tired and ran out of tear gas.
They threw rocks at anti-riot police. According to Reuters, the convoy of Raila Odinga, who was defeated by Ruto last year in his fifth straight election as the runner up, was repeatedly sprayed with tear gas as he addressed supporters from the sunroof of his car.
Odinga's spokesman Dennis Onyango said at least four members of parliament were arrested during protests in Nairobi, including the minority leaders of the National Assembly and Senate.
Mass action, have in the past proven to be useful for countries across the world to make their voices heard and, in some instances, even get the required results.
In 2017 the Zimbabwean nation also took to the streets in several major cities and towns in Zimbabwe to demand the country’s late President Robert Mugabe leave office immediately. Days after the protest Mugabe was removed from office.
The people of Eswatini have also embarked on a mass protest from 2021 to 2022.The protest was against the monarchy in Eswatini, ruled by King Mswati III since 1986. The citizens were protesting the drastically deteriorating human rights situation in the country, and the lack of democratic reforms.
