The sting of tear gas, the cracking of live bullets and images of wounded people sprawled on the ground accompanied mass protests on Tuesday in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, after Parliament approved a controversial tax hike bill despite criticism that it would intensifies economic despair.
Crowds breached Parliament amid smoke as days of protests against the tax bill ended in clashes between police and protesters. Nearly a dozen people died in the violence, state and independent rights groups said.
In recent days, the government has been accused of kidnapping critics, making mass arrests across the country to quell the unrest, and using violence that has caused brutal injuries and at least one death.
Typically a regional bastion of economic security, Kenya has a population of over 54 million. Many of its youth have used technology and social media to organize opposition to the government they say transcends ethnicities, races, clans and socioeconomic class.
Here’s what we know about the controversial legislation that sparked Tuesday’s clashes.
What will the tax bill do?
The Ruto government introduced the Finance Bill 2024 in Parliament in May in what it framed as an effort to raise revenue to help the country tackle the huge debt burden in its borrowing-based economy.
Initially, the bill called for taxes on staples such as bread, cooking oil and cars, but public backlash forced lawmakers to scrap some levies. However, the coups failed to derail public protests.
On Tuesday, the House voted on the bill. It is expected to raise taxes on imported goods – including some staples such as eggs from neighboring East African states – as well as on phone and internet usage, bank transfer fees and digitally operated businesses.
What does the opposition say?
Critics of the bill say it will raise the cost of goods for consumers in a country that already faces a high cost of living.
The overall opposition speaks to a trend across Africa, where young people are increasingly bearing the brunt of rising unemployment and all Kenyans are suffering from high prices caused in part by the coronavirus pandemic and trade disruptions from the invasion of of Russia in Ukraine. In Kenya, an additional factor is the burden of a huge national debt.
Anger and resentment towards President William Ruto, who campaigned on a promise to raise living standards for those living in poverty, has angered an increasingly disaffected public. Mr Ruto’s government previously raised the cost of health insurance and electricity, which, combined with natural disasters, led to protests last year that human rights groups said killed 57 people.
Kenyans “feel increasingly squeezed by disappearing subsidies and rising taxes and misled by a government that campaigned on a message of economic empowerment but governed on a message of austerity,” said Michelle Gavin, senior associate on African policy at the Council on Foreign Relations.
“All this is happening amid inadequate employment opportunities and the spectacle of ongoing corruption among political elites,” he added. “The Finance Bill has a ‘last straw’ in it.”
Mr Ruto’s lavish lifestyle has been a particular focus of controversy, with critics pitting him against the poor members of the public who would be most affected by the pending tax hikes.
Less than a month ago, the White House hosted Mr Ruto for a state dinner, hoping to bolster the shaky balance of US alliances in Africa. On Monday, Mr. Ruto sent a first cadre of Kenyan police officers to Haiti as part of a plan led by the Biden administration to crack down on gang violence in Haiti, a development that drew domestic criticism. Some questioned whether the Kenyan police, which have a history of brutality, were fit for such a mission.
Kenyan police have long been accused by rights groups of using harsh methods to crack down on protesters and extrajudicial killings at police stations.
What happens next?
President Ruto has two weeks to sign the bill into law or send it back to Parliament for amendments.
In a public address on Tuesday afternoon, Mr Ruto called the protests “treasonous” and an “existential threat” to the nation and said the government “has mobilized all the resources at the disposal of the nation to ensure that such situation will not be repeated again, at any cost.”
Aden Duale, Kenya’s defense minister, said the military was assisting the police.
In a joint statement, the embassies of 13 Western countries, including the United States, said they were “shocked” by the violence and “deeply concerned” by claims that protesters had been kidnapped. They called for “restraint on all sides.”
