Since June 18th in Kenya, protests have been underway against President Ruto’s government, which, unlike the promises made during the election campaign, has proven to be distant from the people’s needs, authoritarian, neocolonialist and is accused of corruption.
The Kenyan newspaper “The Nation” speaks of 53 deaths and many kidnappings, and even though the President announced in recent days that he will not sign the budget, he has not been able to stop the unsatisfied young Kenyans from continuing to protest.
The protesters took to the streets peacefully, but as it unfortunately often happens , the police first opened the water hydrants and threw tear gas and smoke bombs, before moving on to actual bullets.
Failing to quell the revolt, the government gave the green light to the use of the army.
The young people of the so-called generation Z have organized themselves within 35 of the 47 Kenyan provinces, in an orderly and peaceful manner.
The objective is to have the financial law proposed by the government withdrawn, which calls for the introduction of new taxes on commonly used products and affects the most vulnerable segments of the population. The government intends to increase the tax burden to raise the equivalent of 2.7 billion dollars and thus making the public debt (which has reached 68 percent of GDP) under control, as foreseen by an agreement that Nairobi has signed with the International Monetary Fund (“Internazionale” magazine, 27th June 2024).
The revolt broke out on June 25th, when the protesters, who wanted to demonstrate peacefully against the financial bill, learned that some of their leaders had been kidnapped. They thus targeted the Parliament, entering and vandalizing what they found in front of them, and then setting it on fire. The police immediately used violence, killing some demonstrators.
Ruto was elected because he promised to fight corruption and be on the side of the poorest, but after the first two years, he made it clear that this will not be the case; the image of him, sitting in the Oval Room of the White House with the worst President America has ever had, certainly did not facilitate an already shaky reconciliation with his electorate.
During this time, Ruto has alternated between moments of understanding and moments of extreme violence; as mentioned above, he gave the army the green light to quell the rioters, and there will certainly be many deaths.
How this story will evolve is difficult to tell; what is certain is that before, demonstrations of this type were led by politicians, but now they are organized and led by young people who want to make their voices heard, and above all have no intention of standing on the sidelines and watching, while the politicians on duty, throws themselves headlong into the cake and divides it up in the face of the poorest and most marginalized!