Inspector General of Police Japhet Koome resigns a day after President William Ruto sacked almost his entire cabinet.
Kenya's police chief has resigned following criticism of officers' conduct during recent anti-government protests in which dozens of demonstrators were killed.
The presidency said in a statement on Friday that President William Ruto “has accepted the resignation” of Inspector General of Police Japhet Koome, who has served in the role since November 2022.
Deputy Inspector General Douglas Kanja has been appointed acting police chief with immediate effect, the presidency said.
The announcement came a day after Ruto sacked almost his entire cabinet, bowing to protesters' demands.
Some of the youths behind the protests had called for Koome to step down, as police were accused of using excessive force during the protests, the most serious crisis of Ruto's nearly two-year presidency.
Kenya's national human rights watchdog said at least 39 people have been killed in anti-government protests.
Reporting from Nairobi, Al Jazeera's Catherine Soi said Koome's resignation was “very significant”.
“This is what these young protesters and many other Kenyans have been calling for. They were calling for the resignation of the police chief for the way he handled those protests,” he said.
“The police used not only tear gas, but also live ammunition. Some people are still in hospital because they were shot. Many others died as a result of the gunfire.”
Ruto has taken a number of steps to appease the protesters, including scrapping the finance bill containing deeply unpopular tax increases that sparked the protests.
On Thursday, he dismissed the attorney general and all cabinet ministers except Foreign Minister Musalia Mudavadi and Vice President Rigathi Gachagua.
But the cabinet announcement, while welcomed by some, did not appease some young Kenyans frustrated by Ruto's failure to deliver on his 2022 election promises to create jobs and boost their fortunes.
“We will be back on the streets until Ruto leaves. He has wasted two years in power travelling and telling lies,” Hyrence Mwangi, 25, told AFP news agency.
The protests, which were initially peaceful, escalated dramatically when police fired on the crowd that stormed parliament on June 25, looting the partially burning complex.
Although large-scale street protests have subsided, anger at the government and police has not.
“When we first came out, Ruto dismissed us as a bunch of hired thugs and criminals, but then he came and started saying he would make changes,” Jackson Rotich, 27, told AFP.
“We can't trust him.”
