Protests against the contentious finance bill in Kenya entered their second week on Tuesday and Thursday, marked by heightened tensions and a significant military presence in the capital, Nairobi.
Protesters, mainly the youth, continued expressing discontent over corruption and misuse of public funds despite President William Ruto’s withdrawal of the most controversial increases.
Speaking on Wednesday, President William Ruto gave Kenyans a ‘listening ear’. He promised to make changes by sending the Finance Bill back to parliament, which will be on recess till the 22nd of July.
Also, in response to the escalating protests, Kenya’s National Assembly approved the deployment of military forces to assist the police in maintaining order. The Law Society of Kenya President Faith Odhiambo said this move was nothing but parliamentary.
This decision was upheld by the Court on Thursday but ordered that the Defense CS Aden Duale issue a new gazette notice within 2 days, highlighting clear terms of the deployment to enable the public to be adequately appraised.,
As it stands, Kenyans are still furious, even despite President Ruto backing down from approving the bill. The new rage is because of the recent killings of innocent Kenyans during the protests by the Kenya Police.
Meanwhile, here are stories making headlines on Opera News today:
IMF told State to ignore anti-tax protests
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) had predicted that there would be protests against controversial tax proposals contained in the Finance Bill w024, which it backed, but asked the State to stand firm regarding the new revenue-raising measures even as it assessed the risk as “medium”.
The multilateral lender’s assessment of the risk turned out to be off the mark as Street protests, led largely by the youth, turned deadly, forcing President William Ruto to return the bill to Parliament with a recommendation to drop all clauses on Wednesday.
By Newshub