Massive Protests In Kenya With No Elite Opposition Politicians On Site

Africa | Kenya June 21, 2024

For the first time since Kenya embraced multi-party politics, the country has witnessed massive protests against the government with no elite opposition politicians on site. That is inferred from reports by some Kenyan media.

According to the reports, that was illustrated by nationwide protests against a proposed budget legislation called Finance Bill 2024, that began on June 18, 2024 and reached their climax on June 20, 2024, when the second reading of the bill in parliament took place. The massive protests are said to have occurred in the near vicinity of the parliament building in the capital Nairobi, as well as in other cities and municipalities including the coastal city of Mombasa, Kisumu, and Eldoret. Police are said to have used tear gas, water cannon, and rubber bullets to try disperse the protesters. 2 people are said to have died and over 200 injured in the protests.

Protests against similar bill have reportedly taken place before. However, while previous protests were organised and led by elite opposition politicians on site, on this occasion protesters were only youths with no sign of elite opposition politicians at the scenes of the protests. The daring and confident youths some of which are said to be college/university students and even recent graduates, were reportedly mobilised by some influential young activists through social media platforms including Instagram, TikTok, and X. The activists are said to have used hashtags that called on youths to go to the scenes of protests and protest against the bill. The young protesters are said to have urged legislators to reject the bill.

Kenya's embattled Finance Bill 2024 reportedly aims at generating local revenues amounting $2.7 billion through hiking of taxes. Taxes to be affected include those on, among others, basic things like bread, cooking oil, and even sanitary products, say some reports.

Accordingly, the young protesters and other critics of the bill, argue that it will exacerbate already too high cost of living in Kenya. However, the government there thinks that the bill is vital if Kenya is to be able to make repayments for its collossal total public debt that is said to be a staggering $76.8 billion and estimated to be 68% of the country's GDP, as of 2024 and by some sources. Out the total public debt, $39.2 billion is external debt. The government has to make the repayments to creditors in order to evade debt default and associated adverse effects on credit rating.

Despite the youths' outcry, the Finance Bill 2024 was reportedly passed by legislators on its second reading in parliament. Third and final reading of the bill in parliament will be before June 30, 2024.

More generally, Kenya like other countries in East Africa in recent years, has been borrowing as it correctly and ambitiously strived to modernize its dilapidated and outdated infrastructure like railway lines, roads, ports, and airports, some of which date back 100 years to the British colonial era. Kenya definitely has to modernize because that will be good for everybody there in the long run. As such, for that to happen, all Kenyans including youths will probably have to realize that modernization of a country comes at high costs and sacrifice. The latter include tightening of belts by everybody at least at the beginning of the process knowing that there are great things coming! There are no such things as free modern standard gauge railway line, urban motorways, world class airports, state-of-the-art hospitals, etc. Everyone in a country has to contribute to the generation of these important capital assets in one way or the other. That may include, among others, paying more tax because that is one of the main ways governments raise revenues for delivering public goods.

Photo: Tsavo SGR Bridge, Tsavo, Kenya

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