Kenya president withdraws tax rises after deadly protests

NAIROBI: Kenya’s president withdrew planned tax rises, bowing to pressure from protesters who had stormed parliament, launched demonstrations across the country and threatened more action this week.

William Ruto said on Wednesday that a bill containing contentious tax hikes would “be withdrawn”, dramatically reversing course after more than 20 people died and parliament was ransacked by protesters opposed to the legislation.

But he warned that the withdrawal of the finance bill would mean a significant shortfall in funding for development programmes designed to help farmers and schoolteachers, among others, as the East African nation struggles to lower its foreign debt burden. “I concede and therefore I will not sign the 2024 finance bill and it shall subsequently be withdrawn,” Ruto told a press briefing, adding: “The people have spoken.”

Ruto´s administration has been taken by surprise by the intensity of opposition to its tax hikes, with protests breaking out across the country last week.

The largely peaceful rallies turned violent when lawmakers passed the legislation and police fired live rounds into crowds that ransacked the partly ablaze parliament complex.

The state-funded Kenya National Commission on Human Rights said it had recorded 22 deaths and 300 injured victims.