KENYA‘s President William Ruto on Wednesday withdrew planned tax rises, bowing to pressure from protesters who had stormed parliament, launched demonstrations across the country and threatened more action this week.
Ruto said he would not sign a finance bill including the hikes a day after violent clashes between police and protesters at the assembly and nationwide left at least 23 people dead and scores wounded, according to medics.
“Listening keenly to the people of Kenya who have said loudly that they want nothing to do with this finance bill 2024, I concede. And therefore, I will not sign the 2024 finance bill, and it shall subsequently be withdrawn,” he said in a televised address Wednesday.
Ruto said he would now start a dialogue with Kenyan youth, without going into details, and work on austerity measures – starting with cuts to the budget of the presidency – to make up the difference in the country’s finances.
The move will be seen as a major victory for a week-old protest movement that grew from online condemnations of tax increases into mass rallies demanding a political overhaul, in the most serious crisis of Ruto’s two-year-old presidency.
It may see off the immediate threat of more unrest, but leaves Ruto still caught between the competing demands of his hard-pressed citizens and of lenders such as the IMF – which is urging the government to cut deficits to obtain more financing.
On Tuesday, the police had opened fire on crowds who massed around parliament and later broke into parliament buildings, minutes after lawmakers had voted through tax hikes seeking to raise an additional $2.7 billion.
The protesters vowed earlier on Wednesday to keep up their demonstrations against new tax hikes, a day after violent clashes outside parliament and across the country left at least 23 people dead and scores wounded.
The Star newspaper reported it had been informed by sources in Ruto’s office the President has proposed a raft of amendments which members of parliament will have to consider.
As heavily armed officers patrolled the streets of the capital Nairobi, supporters of the week-old protest movement took to X, using the hashtag #tutanethursday, or “see you on Thursday” in a mix of Swahili and English.
An online outpouring of anger over tax increases has swelled into a nationwide protest movement calling for a political overhaul, in the most serious crisis of President William Ruto’s two-year-old presidency.
Many social media users focused on Ruto’s speech after the clashes, in which he said the attack on parliament was the work of “criminals pretending to be peaceful protesters”.
“Good morning fellow CRIMINALS Tupatane Thursday To do what CRIMINALS do,” one X user posted.
Nairobi’s main public mortuary received the bodies of six people killed in Tuesday’s protests, a police officer posted there told Reuters. Another two bodies and 160 people with injuries came into the Kenyatta National Hospital, two health officials said.
Ruto said in his televised address to the nation late on Tuesday that the debate about the tax measures – which lawmakers passed minutes before parliament was breached – had been “hijacked by dangerous people”.
The government ordered the army deployed to help the police deal with a “security emergency”, though there were no reports of troops on the streets of Nairobi on Wednesday.
Last week, protesters had circulated a schedule that called for the occupation of parliament on Tuesday and the occupation of State House, the president’s office and residence, on Thursday.
Protester Wellington Ogolla said he would head back out onto the streets. “It’s our right to demonstrate … We are just expressing ourselves,” he told Reuters as he walked through downtown Nairobi, where the smell of tear gas lingered in the air.
Lawmakers removed some tax hikes from the final version of the finance bill, including ones on bread and cooking oil, but inserted others in an effort to avoid a budget gap.
Protesters say they want the whole bill scrapped, and many are now demanding that Ruto resign.
He won election almost two years ago on a platform of championing Kenya’s working poor but has been caught between the competing demands of lenders such as the International Monetary Fund – which is urging the government to cut deficits to obtain more funding – and a hard-pressed population.
The protest movement, which has no formal leadership and has primarily organised on social media platforms, turned out thousands of supporters in dozens of towns and cities on Tuesday.
