France, July 7 -- Police blocked major roads leading to Nairobi and heavily restricted vehicle traffic on Monday, witnesses and Kenyan media said, as the country braced for protests to mark the anniversary of 1990 pro-democracy rallies.

Every year on 7 July, activists rally to mark the date in 1990 when opponents of then-president Daniel Arap Moi launched a bid to transform the country into a multiparty democracy. The protest is called "Saba Saba" - "seven seven" in Kiswahili - because of the date.

This year's rally comes after largely youth-led protests in June last year that initially focused on tax hikes but expanded to cover issues such as corruption, police brutality and unexplained disappearances of government critics.

Can Kenyan...