Nairobi:

Kenyan President William Ruto said Wednesday that a bill containing contentious tax hikes would “be withdrawn”, dramatically reversing course after more than 20 people were killed in clashes with police and parliament was ransacked by protesters opposed to the legislation.

The initially peaceful demonstrations were sparked last week by the 2024 finance bill — which politicians passed Tuesday afternoon — and took Ruto’s administration by surprise as rallies gathered momentum across the country.

But the Gen-Z-led protests spiralled into violence Tuesday when police fired live bullets at the crowds outside parliament, leaving the complex ransacked and partly on fire.

Nineteen people were killed in the capital Nairobi, a state-funded rights watchdog said.

“I concede and therefore I will not sign the 2024 finance bill and it shall subsequently be withdrawn,” Ruto told a press briefing. “The people have spoken,” he said.

“I will be proposing an engagement with the young people of our nation, our sons and daughters, for us to listen to them,” he said, in a marked shift from his late-night address Tuesday when he likened some of the demonstrators to “criminals”.

‘Cannot kill all of us’

Immediately after his speech, prominent protester Hanifa Adan dismissed Ruto’s announcement as “PR”.

Referring to his comments the previous night, she said on X: “He made that speech trying to intimidate us and he saw it won’t work hence the PR.”

“The bill is withdrawn but are you going to bring everyone that died back alive?”

Ahead of Ruto’s about-turn, protesters had called for fresh rallies on Thursday.

“Tomorrow, we march peacefully again as we wear white, for all our fallen people,” Adan had said.

“You cannot kill all of us.”

Demonstrators shared “Tupatane Thursday” (“we meet Thursday” in Swahili), alongside the hashtag #Rejectfinancebill2024 on social media.

Cost-of-living crisis

Ruto came to power in 2022 promising to champion the needs of impoverished Kenyans, but tax increases under his government have only made life tougher for those already struggling with high inflation.

The Kenyan leader had already rolled back some tax measures last week, prompting the treasury to warn of a gaping budget shortfall of 200 billion shillings.

Ruto said Wednesday that withdrawing the bill would mean a significant hole in funding for development programmes to help farmers and schoolteachers, among others.

The cash-strapped government had said previously that the increases were needed to service Kenya’s massive debt of some 10 trillion shillings ($78 billion), equal to roughly 70 percent of GDP.

Deadly day

Earlier on Wednesday, Roseline Odede, chairwoman of the state-funded Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, said “we have recorded 22 deaths”, 19 of them in Nairobi, adding that they would launch an investigation.

“This is the largest number of deaths (in) a single day protest,” she said, adding that 300 people were injured across the country.

Simon Kigondu, president of the Kenya Medical Association, said he had never before seen “such level of violence against unarmed people.”

An official at Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi said Wednesday that medics were treating “160 people…some of them with soft tissue injuries, some of them with bullet wounds.”

Rights watchdogs have also accused the authorities of kidnapping protesters.

The police have not responded to AFP requests for comment.

‘Madness’

A heavy police presence was deployed around parliament early on Wednesday, according to an AFP reporter, the smell of tear gas still in the air and dried blood on the ground.

A policeman standing in front of the broken barricades to the complex told AFP he had watched the scenes unfold on TV.

“It was madness, we hope it will be calm today,” he said.

In the central business district, where the protests have been concentrated, traders surveyed the damage.

“They didn’t leave anything, just the boxes. I don’t know how long it will take me to recover,” James Ng’ang’a, whose electronics shop was looted, told AFP.

The unrest has alarmed the international community, with Washington calling on Kenya to respect the right to peaceful protest on Wednesday.

Ruto’s administration is under pressure from the IMF, which has urged the country to implement fiscal reforms in order to access funding.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Protesters scatter as Kenya police sprays water cannon at them during a protest over proposed tax hikes in a finance bill in downtown Nairobi, Kenya on June 25, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

The Indian High Commission in Kenya on June 25 advised Indian nationals to exercise “utmost caution” in view of prevailing “tense” situation arising out of violent protests in the African nation.

Kenya’s capital Nairobi and other cities across the country witnessed violent clashes and demonstrations after Kenyan Parliament passed a controversial bill that proposed to increase taxes.

“In view of the prevailing tense situation, all Indians in Kenya are advised to exercise utmost caution, restrict non-essential movement and avoid the areas affected by the protests and violence till the situation clears up,” the Indian High Commission said in an advisory.

The Indian mission also advised the Indian nationals to follow local news and Mission’s website and social media handles for updates.

This comes as the protests against proposed tax hikes in Kenya are the target of widespread protests, which are expected to culminate in a “total shutdown” of the nation. The people in the country have been organising rallies under the title of “7 Days of Rage” in response to the Finance Bill 2024, which has generated additional days of unrest around the country, reported CNN.

Around 20,000 Indians are currently living in Kenya, according to an official estimate.

Violent protests

Meanwhile, amid raging protests, Auma Obama, the half-sister of former U.S. President Barack Obama, was teargassed live on air on June 25, CNN reported.

The incident occurred when Auma Obama, who is a Kenyan-British activist, was in a chat with CNN‘s Larry Madowo with a group of teenage protestors. “I can’t even see anymore, we’re being teargassed,” she said. The demonstrations coincide with Kenya’s rising international profile following U.S. President Joe Biden’s designation of the country as a “major non-NATO ally” on Monday.

This is the first time a country in sub-Saharan Africa has been granted this designation. In May, as part of a major state visit to the White House honouring 60 years of diplomatic ties between the two countries, Mr. Biden declared his intention to promote Kenya to this status.

Nairobi:

Kenya’s President William Ruto vowed to take a tough line against “violence and anarchy” on Tuesday, after protests against his government’s proposed tax hikes turned deadly and demonstrators ransacked parliament.

The youth-led protests, which have steadily grown over the past two weeks, had been largely peaceful but chaos erupted in the capital on Tuesday, with crowds throwing stones at police, pushing past barricades and ultimately entering the grounds of Kenya’s parliament.

The military has been deployed to support police who fired tear gas, water cannon, rubber bullets and — according to a rights group — live ammunition against protesters.

Five people were shot dead and 31 wounded, several NGOs including Amnesty Kenya reported in a joint statement.

“We shall provide a full, effective and expeditious response to today’s treasonous events,” Ruto told a press briefing in Nairobi, saying the demonstrations were “hijacked by dangerous people”.

“It is not in order or even conceivable that criminals pretending to be peaceful protesters can reign terror against the people, their elected representatives and the institutions established under our constitution and expect to go scot-free,” Ruto added.

“I hereby put on notice the planners, financiers, orchestrators, abetters of violence and anarchy.”

The White House appealed for calm and 13 Western nations — including Canada, Germany and Britain — said they were “especially shocked” by the scenes outside parliament.

Mainly youth-led rallies have galvanised outrage over proposed tax hikes and simmering anger over a cost-of-living crisis to fuel rapidly growing demonstrations that have caught the government off guard.

“This is the voice of the young people of Kenya,” said Elizabeth Nyaberi, 26, a lawyer at a protest. “They are tear gassing us, but we don’t care.”

“We are here to speak for our generations and the generations to come,” she added.

– ‘Unleashed brute force’ –

Amid the clashes, global web monitor NetBlocks reported that a “major disruption” had hit the country’s internet service.

In the aftermath of the parliament compound breach, local TV showed images of ransacked rooms with smashed windows, while cars parked outside were vandalised and flags destroyed, according to an AFP reporter.

The governor’s office in Nairobi City Hall — just a few hundred metres from parliament — was set alight, footage on privately owned Citizen TV showed, with a water cannon attempting to douse the fire.

After reports that live ammunition was fired at protesters, Kenya’s main opposition coalition, Azimio, said the government had “unleashed brute force on our country’s children”.

“Kenya cannot afford to kill its children just because the children are asking for food, jobs and a listening ear,” it said in a statement.

The military’s deployment was “in response to the security emergency” across Kenya, Defence Minister Aden Bare Duale said in a statement.

Despite the heavy police presence, thousands of protesters had earlier marched peacefully through Nairobi’s business district, many livestreaming the action as they sang and beat drums in their push towards parliament.

Crowds also marched in the port city of Mombasa, the opposition bastion of Kisumu, and Ruto’s stronghold of Eldoret, images on Kenyan TV channels showed.

– Protesters ‘abducted’ –

The Independent Policing Oversight Authority watchdog and rights groups said two people had died following last week’s rallies in Nairobi.

Several organisations, including Amnesty International Kenya, said at least 200 people were wounded in last week’s protests in Nairobi.

Amnesty’s Kenya chapter posted on X Tuesday that “the pattern of policing protests is deteriorating fast”, urging the government to respect demonstrators’ right to assembly.

Rights watchdogs have also accused the authorities of abducting protesters.

The Kenya Human Rights Commission said the abductions had mostly occurred at night and were “conducted by police officers in civilian clothes and unmarked cars”, calling for the “unconditional release of all abductees”.

Police have not responded to AFP requests for comment on the allegations.

– Fuel price hikes –

The cash-strapped government agreed last week to roll back several tax increases.

But it still intends to raise other taxes to fill the void left by the changes, including on fuel prices and export taxes, saying they are necessary for filling the state coffers and cutting reliance on external borrowing.

Critics say the move will make life more expensive in a country already saddled with high inflation and where well-paid jobs are out-of-reach for many young Kenyans.

Kenya has one of the most dynamic economies in East Africa but a third of its 52 million people live in poverty.

The country has a huge debt mountain whose servicing costs have ballooned because of a fall in the value of the local currency over the last two years, making interest payments on foreign-currency loans more expensive.

After the government agreed to scrap levies on bread purchases, car ownership and financial and mobile services, the treasury warned of a budget shortfall of 200 billion shillings ($1.56 billion).

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Kenyan police shot dead one protester near parliament on June 25, a rights group said, with AFP journalists seeing three people lying motionless on the ground as crowds opposed to proposed tax hikes breached barricades to enter the parliamentary complex where a fire erupted.

The rallies, led by the youth, began last week, and caught the government off guard, with President William Ruto saying over the weekend he was ready to talk to the protesters.

But tensions escalated sharply on June 25, as crowds began to throw stones at police and push back against barricades, making their way towards the parliament complex, which was sealed off by police in full riot gear.

Police fired at crowds massing outside the parliament building, where lawmakers had been debating a contentious bill featuring tax hike proposals.

“Police have shot four protesters, as witnessed by KHRC, killing one,” the Kenya Human Rights Commission said in a statement on X.

Shortly before, Irungu Houghton, the executive director of Amnesty International Kenya, told AFP that “human rights observers are now reporting the increasing use of live bullets by the National Police Service in the capital of Nairobi”.

“Safe passage for medical officers to treat the many wounded is now urgent,” he said.

Cost-of-living crisis

Anger over a cost-of-living crisis spiralled into nationwide rallies last week, with demonstrators calling for the finance bill to be scrapped.

Despite a heavy police presence, thousands of protesters had earlier marched through Nairobi’s business district, pushing back against barricades as they headed towards parliament. Police in full riot gear were firing tear gas and rubber bullets into the crowd, according to AFP journalists.

As protesters gained ground in their push towards parliament, many were livestreaming the action earlier in the day as they sang, chanted and beat drums.

Crowds also marched in the port city of Mombasa, the opposition bastion of Kisumu, and Ruto’s stronghold of Eldoret, images on Kenyan TV channels showed.

Growing protests

The Independent Policing Oversight Authority watchdog and rights groups said that two people had died following June 20’s rallies in Nairobi.

Several organisations, including Amnesty International Kenya, said at least 200 people were wounded in last week’s protests in Nairobi.

Amnesty’s Kenya chapter posted on X on June 25 that “the pattern of policing protests is deteriorating fast”, urging the government to respect demonstrators’ right to assembly.

On June 24, ahead of the rallies, the rights body said Kenya was “at a crossroads”. “Despite mass arrests and injuries, the protests have continued to grow, emphasising the public’s widespread discontent,” it said, warning that “the escalation of force could lead to more fatalities and legal repercussions.”

Rights watchdogs have accused the authorities of abducting protesters in violation of the law. The Kenya Human Rights Commission said the abductions had mostly occurred at night and were “conducted by police officers in civilian clothes and unmarked cars”, calling for the “unconditional release of all abductees.”

Police have not responded to AFP requests for comment on the allegations. The protesters have also deployed unconventional tactics, including asking bars to stop playing music at midnight on the weekend as partygoers burst into chants of “Ruto must go” and “Reject finance bill.”

Their demonstrations have drawn support from some Anglican and Catholic church leaders.

Kenya’s debt mountain

The cash-strapped government agreed last week to roll back several tax increases. However, it still intends to raise other taxes, saying they are necessary for filling the state coffers and cutting reliance on external borrowing.

Kenya has a huge debt mountain whose servicing costs have ballooned because of a fall in the value of the local currency over the last two years, making interest payments on foreign-currency loans more expensive.

The tax hikes will pile further pressure on Kenyans, with well-paid jobs remaining out of reach for many young people.

After the government agreed to scrap levies on bread purchases, car ownership and financial and mobile services, the treasury warned of a budget shortfall of 200 billion shillings ($1.56 billion).

The government now intends to target an increase in fuel prices and export taxes to fill the void left by the changes, a move critics say will make life more expensive in a country already saddled with high inflation.

Kenya has one of the most dynamic economies in East Africa but a third of its 52 million people live in poverty.