Kenyan activists called for new protests, strikes, and sit-ins demanding President William Ruto resign on Friday. This comes after nationwide demonstrations forced him to withdraw proposed tax hikes.
Ruto retracted the contested finance bill on Wednesday, a day after parliament was briefly stormed and set ablaze, resulting in at least 23 deaths in clashes with police. On Thursday, two more people were killed and seven injured during smaller protests in major towns, with the army deployed to assist police.
Some protesters felt Ruto’s reversal was too late. A widely shared pamphlet on Friday called for seven days of activism, including strikes and road blockages on July 2 and July 4. The pamphlet, with the hashtag #RUTOMUSTGO, declared, “He has proven himself unfit as a Kenyan and failed his constitutional mandate to protect the Kenyan people.”
Ruto now faces the most serious threat to his two-year-old presidency. The youth-led protest movement has escalated from online criticism of tax hikes to mass rallies demanding his removal.
In response to the protests, Ruto directed the treasury to cut spending by 346 billion Kenyan shillings ($2.69 billion) instead of raising taxes. He instructed officials to fund only essential services using no more than 15% of the budget until a supplementary budget is approved. He also met with Catholic bishops, who have condemned police brutality, to find solutions.
At the funeral of 19-year-old motorbike taxi rider Ibrahim Kamau, shot during Tuesday’s protest, his mother Edith Wanjiku demanded justice for her son and other victims. “Ibrahim was a calm young man, and a happy person who was never involved in crime,” she said.
Prominent activist Boniface Mwangi, speaking at Kamau’s graveside, said Kamau was murdered by police. “His life was cut very short,” Mwangi told Reuters. “He was unarmed, just protesting for his rights.”