(BSS/AFP) - Ten people have been killed across Kenya during demonstrations to mark a historic protest day, a rights body in the east African nation said on Monday.

The Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) said in a statement it "had documented ten (10) fatalities, twenty-nine (29) injuries, two (2) cases of abduction and thirty-seven (37) arrests across seventeen (17) counties". It did not provide any further details.

However, the body also noted the presence of "criminal gangs wielding crude weapons, including whips, wooden clubs, machetes, spears, bows and arrows" during the protests, stating that in capital Nairobi "these hooded gangs were seen operating alongside police officers".