Kenyan police put up roadblocks on streets leading to the presidential palace Thursday as some protesters vowed to “occupy State House”, despite the president’s climbdown on proposed tax hikes that sparked a week of demonstrations.
It was not clear how far protesters would be mollified by President William Ruto’s Wednesday decision to withdraw the finance bill a day after clashes killed at least 23 people and saw parliament being stormed briefly.
Ruto is grappling with the most serious crisis of his two-year-old presidency as the youth-led protest movement has grown rapidly from online condemnations of the tax hikes into mass rallies demanding a political overhaul.
Lacking a formal leadership structure, however, protest supporters were divided on how far to carry the demonstrations.
“Let’s not be foolish as we fight for a better Kenya,” Boniface Mwangi, a prominent social justice activist, said in an Instagram post.
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He voiced support for demonstrations yesterday but opposed calls to invade State House, the president’s formal offices and residence, a move that he said could spur more violence and be used to justify a crackdown.
Reuters reporters saw an army vehicle in the capital’s central business district, site of the bulk of Tuesday’s protests, after the government deployed the military to help police rein in the violence.
Ruto’s backtracking will be seen as a major victory for a week-old youth-led protest movement that grew from online condemnations of tax increases into mass rallies.
Although some protest supporters said they would not demonstrate yesterday as the finance bill had been scrapped, others pledged to press on, saying only Ruto’s resignation would satisfy them.
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“Right now is not about just the finance bill but about #RutoMustGo,” Davis Tafari told Reuters in a text message. “As political activists we have to make sure that Ruto and his MPs have resigned and fresh elections are held.”
He added, “We occupy State House for dignity and justice.”
In a speech on Wednesday, Ruto defended his push to raise taxes on items such as bread, cooking oil and diapers, saying it was justified by the need to cut Kenya’s high debt, which has made borrowing difficult and squeezed the currency.—Reuters
