Security forces were deployed in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, on Thursday as protesters mourned those killed during demonstrations earlier in the week.
At least 23 people are to have died on Tuesday, the same day a new finance bill was passed by Kenyan lawmakers. Part of the parliament building was set alight by protesters, and security forces reacted with tear gas and bullets. Simultaneous protests were held across the country.
On Wednesday, President William Ruto said he would drop the bill, which provided for increased taxes and was widely perceived as punishing the poor in a country where one third of people live under the poverty line. “The people have spoken,” he said.
“Fellow Kenyans! President Ruto listens. The finance bill 2024 is now shelved. Let’s not aid those who don’t wish our country well by staging protests to destabilise us. Kenya is the only country that we have,” government spokesman Isaac Maigua Mwaura posted on Thursday afternoon on the social media platform X.
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Some protesters continued to call for Mr Ruto to resign, but attempts to march to the State House, his official residence, on Thursday were thwarted by security forces blocking the roads.
Mr Ruto, a multimillionaire and former vice-president, was elected as ’s fifth president in 2022, after running a campaign that mobilised the country’s youth. He portrayed himself as a champion of the poor and those he called “hustlers”. However, Mr Ruto had already been dogged by corruption allegations, and was also previously indicted by the International Criminal Court for alleged involvement in violence following elections in 2007.
[ Several killed and dozens injured during protest in Kenya over tax BillOpens in new window ]
One of the protesters on Tuesday, Djae Aroni, a 30-year-old musician with Afropunk band Crystal Axis, told the uprising was “unprecedented,” and the way the “peaceful protesters” took to the streets was “beautiful”.
Mr Aroni, who has a law background, said the right to protest protected. “We did nothing wrong, we did nothing illegal, we followed everything to the letter.”
He said it was widely understood that the bill was supposed to raise money to pay back loans, including to the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. He said if the taxes were for service delivery and the “benefit of the people” the response would have been different.
Kenya has more than €74 billion in domestic and foreign public debt. “Kenya has been going through an incredibly ridiculous recession and the cost of living is the highest it’s ever been ... I don’t think I can even afford to go on a date, to be honest,” said Mr Aroni.
He said austerity measures were already “beyond what I can put down in words” and people had taken to the streets as a last resort. “When you’re backed into a corner, what else can you do?”
Tuesday was one of the few days he felt he could say “I am proud to be a Kenyan ... This has been an entire country coming together ... Inadvertently the government has united the country.” He said he had witnessed a response from the authorities that involved “an extreme amount of police brutality” to a scale that had left him “heartbroken”, “crushed” and “angry”. “Everything that happened was completely unnecessary in terms of the violence.”
Another protester, who gave his name as Milango, told his chest still congested as a result of being tear-gassed on Tuesday. “I am in mourning,” he said, about the people who had died.
Solidarity protests were held this week outside the Kenyan embassy in Berlin, London and Washington DC.
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2024
