Kenya’s president drops tax rises after deadly protests

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Kenya’s president said he would not sign a controversial bill proposing steep tax rises following days of youth-led protests that turned deadly after demonstrators stormed the country’s parliament.

President William Ruto said in an address to the nation on Wednesday that “the country witnessed widespread expression of dissatisfaction” after lawmakers passed the bill on Tuesday, “regrettably resulting in the loss of life”.

He added that “after listening keenly to the people of Kenya who have said loudly that they want nothing to do with this finance bill 2024, therefore I will not sign [it] and it shall subsequently be withdrawn”.

The president’s move comes as human rights groups allege the police killed at least 23 people and injured 300 during Tuesday’s demonstrations.

“The police shot young, unarmed protesters outside parliament, with the shootings and killings going into the night,” said a coalition of activists, including the Police Reforms Working Group, a lobby organisation, and other groups, including the Kenya Human Rights Commission.

The groups also cited reports that “police opened fire and killed several people” in Githurai, a district on the outskirts of Nairobi, “way after the protest ended”, with the Law Society of Kenya calling for an investigation.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the UN, in a post on X, said: “No Kenyan should be put in harm’s way while exercising their right to peaceful public assembly. We are encouraged by the Kenyan government’s decision to respond to the calls of demonstrators and civil society.”

Ruto is one of the US’s staunchest allies in Africa.

Ruto declared the storming of parliament as “treasonous” and said his country had “experienced an unprecedented attack on its democracy”, stressing that a “legitimate expression of the fundamental rights and freedom of assembly, demonstration, picketing and petitioning of public authorities” had been “infiltrated and hijacked by a group of organised criminals”.

The president also thanked Kenya’s security forces, after the army was deployed on Tuesday evening to support police, for their work after parts of the parliament building in the capital, Nairobi, were set on fire. With the protests set to continue, western governments and the UN urged security forces to exercise restraint.

The tax increases aimed to raise an additional $2.3bn of revenue in the coming fiscal year, as Kenya struggles to reduce its deficit — from 5.7 per cent of GDP in the current 2023-24 financial year to 3.3 per cent the following year — and put its public finances in order.

The measures were partly aimed at complying with an IMF programme that requires Nairobi to increase revenues and slash government spending. Kenya’s treasury secretary, Njuguna Ndung’u, had warned that not approving the tax increases in full risked creating a $1.5bn hole in the budget, and proposed slashing expenditures.

Ruto ordered the executive arm of government to curb travel budgets and purchases of motor vehicles, adding that the judiciary, parliament and county governments should follow suit.

Jacques Nel, head of Africa macro at consultancy Oxford Economics, wrote in a research note that Ruto will have to balance “two opposing forces: a populace willing to resort to violence to protect livelihoods, and a macroeconomic trajectory that, bar considerable multilateral support, is heading towards a cliff”.

The president also proposed an “engagement with young people” as the protests have been spearheaded by young Kenyans — many of them jobless — over the past week.

The protests and the police crackdown echo events during Nigeria’s #EndSARS movement in 2020, when young Nigerians clashed with an infamous police unit — the Special Anti-Robbery Squad — accused of indiscriminate killings and extortion. The #EndSARS campaign was silenced that year by the Nigerian military, who killed at least 12 protesters in Lagos.

Kenyan protesters are planning mass demonstrations on Thursday. They say they are undeterred by the crackdown and unconvinced by the words of Ruto — who they call Zakayo, the Swahili name for the biblical tax collector Zacchaeus. Many young activists are calling for a “1 million people march” in Nairobi under the social media hashtag #ZakayoStopKillingUs.

“The arrogance is gone, but the lies are still there,” activist Boniface Mwangi said on Instagram. “Yesterday they unleashed goons and police to kill peaceful protesters. That will not stop us. See you tomorrow at the 1 million people march. He can’t kill us all.”

Davis Tafari, a 25-year-old protest leader, said Ruto’s more conciliatory mood was aimed at “confusing” Kenyans, adding: “We are returning to the streets to seek justice for our slain colleagues.”