(Nairobi) Whistles in their mouths and smartphones in hand, thousands of young Kenyans demonstrated Thursday across the country against the government’s draft budget, currently being debated in Parliament, which provides for the introduction of new taxes.
Two days after a first demonstration of a few hundred people in the capital Nairobi, the mobilization of Kenyan “generation Z” spread across the country, as part of an unprecedented movement launched barely a week earlier on social networks, outside any political framework.
Called “Occupy Parliament”, it crystallized around the hashtag #RejectFinanceBill2024 the opposition to the government project to create in particular a VAT of 16% on bread and an annual tax of 2.5% on private vehicles, to finance the 2024-25 budget.
Faced with growing discontent, the government of President William Ruto announced on Tuesday that it was withdrawing most of the tax measures provided for in the text, which must be voted on in parliament before June 30.
But the demonstrators are demanding its complete withdrawal.
On Thursday, processions marched, to the sound of whistles and vuvuzelas, in opposition strongholds in Mombasa (east) and Kisumu (west), in Eldoret (west) in the Rift Valley where the president is from, or in the towns of Nanyuki (center), Nakuru (center), Nyeri (center), Kisii (southwest)…
In Nairobi, the demonstration, which brought together several thousand people according to an AFP journalist, was punctuated by a few clashes, including burning tires and street furniture. Without comparison with the tension which accompanied demonstrations against the high cost of living organized last year by the opposition and which gave rise to deadly clashes and looting.
No mobilization figures are available from protests in Kenya.
PHOTO LUIS TATO, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Across the country, demonstrators compare the head of state (a fervent evangelist who was elected in August 2022 by promising to defend the most modest) to Zakayo (Zacchaeus in Swahili), the biblical figure of the tax collector.
” The people’s voice ”
In the capital, young demonstrators defied the police’s tear gas and water cannon fire for hours with provocative songs and dances. Without ever letting go of their smartphones to take selfies or live stream on social media.
“As “Generation Z,” we are the voice of the people. It’s something they (the government) are not used to,” says Margaret, 23, a graduate and unemployed.
“These taxes […] make no sense. We’re just tired of being lied to,” she says. “We want the government to hear us and realize that it’s not about them, it’s about us.”
A 22-year-old student, Bella distrusts the government. “They are trying to lie to us, the taxes they removed from bread, they added elsewhere,” she believes.
“We are dying, we cannot have three meals a day. What good does it bring us? Why should we respect him? Ruto should leave,” says Jack Ouma, 28, in the town of Kisumu.
To compensate for Tuesday’s announcements, the government is now considering increasing taxes on fuel and exported products.
According to opponents, this risks increasing the cost of living, already burdened by last year’s increases in income tax and health contributions and the doubling of VAT on gasoline.
Across the country, demonstrators compare the head of state (a fervent evangelist who was elected in August 2022 by promising to defend the most modest) to Zakayo (Zacchaeus in Swahili), the biblical figure of the tax collector.
In Parliament, debates on the budget continued on Thursday in an extraordinary session. A parliamentary source told AFP that the final vote was currently scheduled for June 27.
For the government, this new tax grab is necessary to restore room for maneuver to the country, which is heavily in debt.
Kenya, one of East Africa’s fastest growing economies, recorded year-on-year inflation of 5.1% in May, with food and fuel prices rising by 6.2% respectively. % and 7.8%, according to the Central Bank.
GDP growth is expected to decelerate to 5% this year, after 5.6% in 2023 and 4.9% in 2022, according to the World Bank. The country’s public debt amounts to around 10,000 billion shillings (71 billion euros), or around 70% of GDP.