AA / Tunis / Majdi Ismail
New protests are planned for Tuesday in Kenya following a call to continue the mobilization against the government of President William Ruto that began in mid-June and left 39 dead.
This wave of deadly protests, sparked by the government’s budget plan introducing new taxes, has turned into a national movement of defiance against the government in power.
The head of state announced on Wednesday the withdrawal of the 2024-2025 budget project, the day after a day of violence marked by the storming of Parliament by protesters. The police then fired live ammunition into the crowd.
The 2024-25 draft budget included a 16% value-added tax (VAT) on bread and a 2.5% annual tax on private vehicles. The government said the new taxes were necessary because of the country’s high debt. The planned tax increases were intended to finance the budget, which is projected to spend a record 4 trillion shillings (€29 billion).
Kenya’s public debt stands at about Sh10 trillion, or about 70% of GDP.
According to the Kenya National Human Rights Commission (KNHCR), 39 people have died since the first demonstration on June 18. Human Rights Watch, for its part, reports a death toll of 31. President William Ruto, for his part, mentioned in an interview on Sunday a death toll of 19, saying that he had “no blood on his hands” and that the police “did their best” to preserve order, according to Le Monde.
On Tuesday morning, several shops remained closed in the business centre of the capital Nairobi, the epicentre of previous street protests, the same source reported.
Since the deadly mobilization of June 25, calls for demonstrations have been followed in different ways by young people, who constitute the heart of the movement, including “generation Z” (young people born after 1997, editor’s note).
A rally in tribute to the victims was held on Sunday and brought together several hundred people who chanted “Ruto must go!”
Elected in August 2022, William Ruto had pledged to defend the poorest, but he had since taken austerity measures that have degraded the purchasing power of Kenyans.
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