Kenya’s President Speaks after Protesters Killed

To Kenya now where the country’s president, William Ruto, has accused, what’s it called? Criminals of hijacking mass protests against tax rises. Five people were shot dead by police after demonstrators broke through cordons and entered the parliament on Tuesday. Parts of the building were set on fire. The military has been deployed to try and restore order. Well, let’s speak to our senior Africa correspondent, Ann Soy, who’s in Nairobi for us. And Ann, just describe the mood there in Kenya following those developments on Tuesday.

There’s a lot of anger and tension in different parts of the country as people begin to take stock of what happened yesterday. There was a lot of support for the protesters who went out to protest, not just in Nairobi, but in different towns and cities across the country, including the president’s own hometown of Eldoret. And the fact that they were met yet again with brutal force from the police and now the military has been deployed by government, we do not know where exactly, that has only exacerbated the feeling of anger by people in Kenya. And they’re asking, “Has the Constitution been suspended? Is this right to deploy the military against the people?” And therefore, they have vowed to continue with their picketing. The president you mentioned there did speak last night about the protest, and he claimed that criminal elements had infiltrated what were otherwise legitimate protests that are protected by the law in Kenya. And he said that he will provide a full effective and expeditious response to what he termed as treasonous events. So striking a very defined note there, Catherine.

And Ann, what happens next with the Finance Bill? At the moment, parliament has passed it. Will the President reconsider signing it into law?

Well, following his tone during that address to the nation at night, there’s little hope that he will refer this back to Parliament where it could be amended or shot down altogether. He said that the government will continue with its constitutional mandate indicating that it’s very likely that he’s going to assent to this bill and make it law. There was also the Appropriations Bill, which is basically the budget of the country, which was debated yesterday and proceeded to the next stage in Parliament and they resumed this morning to continue with the debate.

Ann, thank you. That’s our senior Africa correspondent, Ann Soy, in Nairobi. Well, let’s stay in Nairobi and speak to Nanjala Nyabola. She’s a writer and political analyst. Thank you for joining us on the program. Nanjala, what are your thoughts reflecting on those protests in Nairobi and the response from security forces?

I think that the protests are a culmination of several years of disenfranchisement with the government. I think it’s really helpful to think about this as in the context of the country’s recent history. This is a very relatively young country. 60% of the country’s population is below the age of 35. So we expected to see thus many young people in the streets in part of the protest. But it’s an unhappiness that comes from several years of economic and political frustration, and specifically this Finance Bill that was passed under very complicated circumstances, almost forced through the legislature, despite the fact that there was this massive indication of unhappiness from the public. So I look at these images with sadness. Obviously as a Kenyan, the loss of life, the unexpected loss of life is very devastating and on significant concern about this break in communication between the government and the people.

And in many ways, Nanjala, these are unprecedented scenes in Nairobi, these protests. It looks like the president will go ahead and sign this legislation into law. What do you think happens next?

Well, I should say that it’s really important to pay attention to the fact that this is not just a Nairobi protest and this is part of the reason why the government is so rattled. I think there was heavy-handed policing in Nairobi and there was obviously an excess action from the side of the protesters. We’ve never seen people breach the cordon of parliament. Parliament is one of the most securitized areas in the country. But I think the thing that has the government very rattled right now is the fact that these were nationwide protests, and protests were recorded in at least 20 different counties according to human rights groups. And that’s the thing that we really have to pay attention to. This is a national indication of anger. And so should the President assent to the bill, despite the fact that so many people across the country have indicated that they are unhappy with it, I think it would be signaling, very poor signaling to the people that the government is going to act despite the fact there is public anger and public frustration.

(05:15)
I think that that would be something that the legislature needs to think about as the people who are supposed to be the link between the people and the executive. That’s also a key part of this puzzle, that the president hasn’t actually passed the bill yet. Everything that’s happened so far has been happening at the level of parliament. And I think that’s the part that also needs to be looked carefully because we’ve seen more direct confrontation with parliamentarians. We’ve seen people going to parliamentarian’s homes to their offices in different parts of the country, and should parliament continue, the bill has gone through the third reading. Should it go through this next stage to the president then it would have indicated that Parliament has really gone against the wishes of the people. And that is something that I am paying attention to with a great deal of concern.

Nanjala, it’s difficult to escape the fact that Kenya finds itself in a difficult financial position. It’s hard to be bailed out by international finance organizations like the IMF. They’re calling for tax rises to boost revenue collection. What do you think the role is for Kenya’s international partners, particularly the United States, which is a close ally of President Ruto?

The challenge that the Kenyan government faces is a big chunk of the debt that is looming over the government isn’t from the United States, it’s not from the West, it’s actually from China. And there’s significant amount of borrowing that happened towards the end of the previous administration in order to fund large infrastructure projects that were really, again, part of this break between the public and the government because there was a significant amount of resistance to these projects, to the new highway, to the new railway, to the port in Lamu. There was a significant amount of resistance because the analysts and experts said to the government that the country cannot afford these projects. Part of the challenge that we’re facing is that the Chinese government isn’t necessarily as forthcoming with debt forgiveness as other parts of the world. And that’s really part of the tension that the government is facing here, that they have to meet these financial obligations.

(07:19)
I think one of the things that Professor Wangari Maathai, who is Kenya Nobel Prize winner pointed out is that, unfortunately, the way debt is structured is that governments take on the debt and ordinary people have to pay it off. And this is really the friction that we’re seeing in Kenya is that ordinary people are being asked to go deeper, to pay more, sorry, despite the fact that they’re still recovering from the COVID pandemic, they’re still recovering from the economic upheaval, global economic upheaval of the last 12 months, still recovering from the international economic upheaval caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

(07:55)
There’s all of these contextual crises that are happening in the background and here come this great draft of tax measures to pay off a debt that the public said the government shouldn’t have taken in the first place, but the government ignored the public resistance to them in the first place. So it’s this contextual crisis of governance, of leadership in which this break between elected officials and ordinary people is manifesting as protest that’s being over-policed, the resistance from the government is completely unprecedented. And I think what will be important to pay attention to next is will Kenyan elected officials actually listen to what Kenyan people are saying?

Nanjala Nyabola, thank you for joining us on BBC.