Limited but determined protests in Kenya call for president’s resignation
Protesters returned to the streets in Kenya on Thursday. Some of them demanded President William Ruto’s resignation, despite his announcement a day earlier that he would abandon a tax bill that sparked widespread demonstrations that left nearly 20 people dead.
The crowd in Nairobi, the capital, was much smaller than Tuesday’s, when tens of thousands of protesters poured into the city center as lawmakers debated and then passed the controversial legislation. That demonstration turned violent when people stormed the building and set parts of it on fire, and human rights groups say at least 23 people were killed and more than 300 others injured when police used tear gas and bullets against them.
A heavy police and military presence was visible in the capital on Thursday, with officers in cars, trucks and on horseback guarding roads leading to parliament, the president’s official residence and several downtown streets. Much of the central business district remained closed as police chased and teargassed smaller crowds waving white roses. In some neighborhoods in Nairobi, protests continued into the evening.
Some activists And political leaders of the opposition demonstrators had called for don’t march to the president’s official residence in Nairobi on Thursday, fearing more bloodshed. But others said the killings, shootings and kidnappings of the past few days — which activists called some of the bloodiest in Kenya’s recent history — would not deter them from pressuring Mr Ruto to step down.
“We will stay in these streets until Ruto leaves,” said John Kimani, 25, who protested in Nairobi. “Nobody can tell us otherwise.”
In Eldoret, Mr Ruto’s stronghold, dozens of young men with wooden batons, bows and arrows demonstrated in support of the president. One of them carried a sign that read: “Warning: Protest at your own risk.”
Until Ruto announced on Wednesday that he would not sign the finance bill, the president defended the measure as necessary to raise revenue and prevent default for a country whose government owes billions of dollars to its creditors.
As protesters gathered outside what they called “Occupy Parliament” on Tuesday and some forced their way into the legislative building, Ruto called their activities “treasonous” and said he would deploy the military to support police in suppressing the protests.
On Thursday, Kenya’s High Court ruled that the deployment of the military was necessary to assist the police, but called on the government to announce the terms and duration of the deployment within two days.
“The president has not respected the general will of the people,” said Jimmy Magero, a protester in Kisumu, an opposition stronghold along Lake Victoria. “He cannot rule us by force when we say enough is enough.”
Youth-led protests in Kenya began last week, with opponents arguing that the bill would dramatically increase the cost of living. Even as Ruto’s ruling coalition scrapped some of the proposed new taxes, many activists and opposition members of parliament rejected the bill.
Government spokesman Isaac Mwaura called on Kenyans on Thursday to stop marching through the streets. “Let us not help those who do not wish our country well by organizing protests to destabilize us,” he said. said in a statement“Kenya is the only country we have.”
But many were not deterred.
In Kisumu, dozens of protesters tried to reach the president’s residence but were turned away by police. Most shops in central Kisumu were closed as traffic was gridlocked and police set up barricades to prevent protesters from accessing some main streets.
Similar protests broke out in the port city of Mombasa, where demonstrators chanted: “Ruto must go.” Protesters also blocked the Migori-Kisii highway in the country’s west, burning tires and throwing rocks at police.
About 50 young Kenyans had been kidnapped on Wednesday, according to the Law Society of Kenya. By Thursday, some of the abductees had been released by law enforcement officials, but… several others to have missingsaid Law Society President Faith Odhiambo.
The country’s vice president, Rigathi Gachagua, has blamed the National Intelligence Service for the spiral of violence. He said Wednesday night that the agency had failed to properly inform the president about the anger on the streets, and called on its director, Noordin Haji, to resign.
Opponents have also pointed out that Ruto was deputy president in the previous government, leaving Kenya with huge debts.
In total, Kenya owes about $39 billion to foreign and commercial lenders. Protesters have specifically targeted the International Monetary Fund, which has lent the East African nation more than $3 billion and in turn has recommended the government raise taxes and cut spending.
Representative Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota, echoed similar sentiments on Wednesday: proverb the “austerity conditions recommended by the IMF have contributed to the economic hardships faced by Kenyan citizens.”
With protesters vowing to continue flooding the streets, analysts say Ruto faces an increasingly emboldened public determined to see tangible change.
“The financing law was the final straw,” said Kathleen Klaus, an associate professor at Uppsala University in Sweden studied political violence in KenyaThe legislation, she added, “has created a clear event and a set of demands around which peaceful resistance can be organized.”
Odera Wycliffe contributed reporting from Kisumu, Kenya; Mohammed Ahmed from Mombasa, Kenya; and Jimmy Gitaka from Eldoret, Kenya.
