Disclaimer: The following blog post is not a reflection of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s opinion on the below topics.
Author’s note: I spent this past summer in Kenya while the 2024 Finance Bill protests were happening, in a town called Lunga Lunga which is a two and half hour drive from Mombasa, Kenya’s second largest city and where many protests were taking place. While shopping at a local market, I bought goods that came wrapped in a newspaper– a Kenyan newspaper from June 2020 detailing the protests in response to the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, which is right near my hometown in the Twin Cities. In the same way that stories of the protests that occurred in my home were shared in Kenya, I wanted to bring the knowledge of Kenya’s protests during the time I was there to a wider audience.
A protester stands his ground as heavily armed riot police charge at him. “You can’t kill us all,” he shouts. His eyes were visibly irritated by tear gas in the air meant to target protestors, and he splashed water on his face from a bottle to attempt to mitigate the damage.
A larger group of protestors press forward to support him. Some aim to demonstrate their non-violent nature to police by kneeling or raising their hands over their head, but all together chant, “we are peaceful, we are peaceful.”[1]
Scenes such as these, where peaceful protestors are met with violence from police, including tear gas, water cannons, and in some cases even bullets, were all too common in Kenya during the summer of 2024, in which thousands of young people took to the streets to protest the 2024 Finance Bill. The bill was thought by many to raise the cost of essential goods, most impacting poor and middle-class Kenyans.
To better understand what led so many to take the streets, we must understand the state of the Kenyan economy and the justifications for the bill, before going further into the unique role that Generation Z and social media played in mobilizing resistance and the connections these demonstrations have to the broader history of resistance and non-violence in Kenya.
The 2024 Finance Bill, often referred to as the Tax Bill, was the next step in a series of tax increases that President Ruto has taken to reduce the national debt since he took office in 2022, which is currently around $80 billion, averaging around 70% of the country’s GDP.[7] The 2024 Finance Bill aimed to increase national revenue by 302 billion Kenyan shillings (KES) which is the largest amount that a finance bill has attempted to increase revenue in Kenya’s history. To put the significance of the KES 302 billion increase into scope, other than Finance Bill 2023, the revenue targets from each yearly Finance Bill since 2019 have ranged from KES 35 billion to 50 billion.[8]
To produce this revenue, Finance Bill 2024 proposed tax increases in several key places, including on various goods and services that are widely used. Some of these include:
- A 16% value-added tax on bread, a new annual 2.5% tax on cars, and increases on mobile money transfers.
- Taxes on products that are considered harmful to the environment, including plastics and packing materials. This results in tax increases on essential products, including diapers, menstrual products, computers, and mobile phones.
- A 16% value-added tax on financial services and foreign exchange transactions.
- The taxing of income from digital content and marketplaces.[9]
These provisions have been criticized as overly burdening the poor and middle classes, who already face economic hardships in accessing essential goods. This is a perspective overwhelmingly shared by the Kenyan public, as more than 70 percent of the population opposed the bill during the public hearings in Parliament.[10]
Despite Ruto’s eventual rejection of the bill, it is clear that these protests have evolved beyond the specifics of the Finance Bill to Kenya’s broader discontent with government fiscal policy and leadership, which they believe to be corrupt. Many of the young people involved in the demonstrations cite the increasing disconnect between the lavish lives of politicians who “carry around wads of cash, drive expensive cars and live in big estates” and the general population, who are struggling to make ends meet yet expected to bear the majority of the tax burden.[11]
The rising discontentment with Ruto’s government and the tax bill is also connected to the global context and actors involved in the process, primarily the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF operates as one of the key driving forces behind the plans for the Finance Bill. To meet the conditions for a $3.9bn loan from the IMF, Kenya must take austerity measures in line with the international body– including increasing taxes, reducing subsidies, and cutting government waste.[13]
The IMF, one of two key international bodies that govern the global economy, has long been criticized as neocolonial, or a way for rich countries to control and benefit from the economies of less wealthy countries. The decision-making power in the IMF favors the perspectives of these rich countries that often gained their wealth from colonization, such as the US and Western Europe. The US has the power to veto all significant decisions and, together with the G7 and European Union, controls over half of the voting power.[14] Middle- and low-income countries, which are often formerly colonized countries such as Kenya, all together comprise 85% of the world population but less than half of the vote in the IMF.[15]
Similar to the stipulations that the IMF has placed on Kenya for their loan, they often condition their support and aid to countries on the adoption of strict austerity measures and reorientation of their economies to focus almost entirely on exports.[16] The IMF claims that these austerity measures, which are attempts to curtail government spending through increasing taxes and cutting spending, increase growth, but they have actually instead been linked to greater economic inequality and worsening poverty.[17]
Caroline Kimeu, the Guardian’s East African Correspondent who is based in Nairobi, explains why the IMF’s involvement causes public anger over the Finance Bill. “People feel that the president is very keen on prioritizing the country’s international image and relations, especially with the US, over national priorities,” she explains. “Ultimately the feeling is: why are we bending over backward to meet foreign needs over pressing national concerns?”[18]
Another significant component of the Finance Bill protests is that they have been led by young people of Generation Z, who comprise the majority of Kenya’s population. Their leadership showcases the role that social media, such as TikTok and X (formerly known as Twitter), can play in spreading information and mobilizing non-violent resistance and protest. Two years ago, young Kenyans were widely criticized as disengaged for failing to register and show up to vote, but the mass mobilization for protesting the Finance Bill just shows that young people are overwhelmingly “opting for other, more effective modes of engagement with governance in the years in between elections.”[20] The lack of electoral engagement also demonstrates truly how deep young people’s disillusionment with the Kenyan political system and process runs.
Through utilizing technologies such as the internet and social media to organize, young Kenyans are working to challenge the existing order, even within existing organizing and protest movements. On X, the hashtag #RejectFinanceBill2024 alone was viewed by more than 750 million users and engaged with more than 15 million times, including by more than 400,000 unique users.[21]
People used social media to share information about the bill, coordinate details for protests, and crowd-fund to help people access transportation to the demonstrations. They shared the contact information of government officials online, encouraging people to message and call them to withdraw their support, and organized blood donation drives to support injured protestors. Importantly, social media served as a way for people to connect around their shared anger at the Finance Bill, rather than letting tribal and ethnic divisions interfere with their organizations, which has happened in several past Kenyan social movements.[23]
Peaceful Resistance Met with Horrific Violence
The incredible measures young people have taken as leaders in the movement against the 2024 Finance Bill haven’t come without harm. Young people have faced the majority of violence at the hands of police, including those who have lost their lives, such as Emmanuel Tata and Evans Kiratu. Emmanuel was just twenty years old when he was declared dead at the hospital, suffocating after inhaling tear gas at the protests, according to his uncle, Daniel Nzamba. “How do you explain this loss? A bright future just snapped away like that in an instance, because we just couldn’t listen to our own children when they told us we were on the wrong path,” Nzamba said when recounting the tragic loss of his nephew.[24]
Evans Kiratu was just twenty-one when he was killed after being struck with a tear gas canister that exploded. His aunt reports that the police left Kiratu bleeding on the road, unable to walk or seek help, and that a bystander found him and rushed him to the hospital, where he passed. Kiratu’s mother, Ann Wanjiru, echoes the same grief and anger towards the government for what happened to her son. “I want the government to explain to me if we elected them to kill our children. I had hopes and dreams for him.”[25] Other named protestors who were killed include Benson Mbithi, Michael Kihuga, Austin Makhoka, Caroline Shiramba, Rex Masai, Eric Kayoni, and Ibrahim Kamau.[26]
Human Rights Watch raises broader concerns about the treatment of protestors at the hands of the police and military in Kenya. In November 2024 they released the results of their investigation, finding clear evidence that between June and August 2024, Kenyan security forces abducted, arbitrarily arrested, tortured, and killed those who were assumed to be leaders of the Finance Bill protests.[28] Former abductees report being snatched from their workplaces and homes to be held in abandoned buildings without charges, violating Kenyan law that requires arraignment of suspects in court within 24 hours. Abductees report being physically tortured, and “several victims said that police officers punched, slapped, kicked, and beat them with rubber whips, sticks, plastic pipes, and in some instances butt stocks of firearms.”[29] There have been bodies of those reported missing that have turned up in rivers, forests, abandoned quarries, and mortuaries, similarly showing signs of torture, with some even mutilated and dismembered.[30]
Otsieno Namwaya, associate Africa director at Human Rights Watch, calls for authorities to “end the abductions, publicly denounce rhetoric that attempts to criminalize peaceful protests and ensure prompt investigation and fair prosecution of security officers credibly implicated in the abuses.”[31]
Not Just Now: Kenya’s Broader Nonviolent Resistance
Non-violent resistance has continued to be a central tactic utilized by Kenyans in the face of violent pushback by Kenyan authorities. In 2016, Kenya’s main opposition party, the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD), organized widespread demonstrations against the elections management commission of Kenya, in which many top officials have been found to engage in bribery and corruption. These protests were entirely peaceful until police started shooting live ammunition at protestors, in which at least five people died and sixty were wounded.[32]
Just last month, Kenyan women launched demonstrations protesting the high rates of gender-based violence in the country, which is characterized as a silent epidemic. Police reported in October that 97 Kenyan women had been killed by their male partners since just August, and given high rates of unreported violence, the true number is undoubtedly much higher. Similar to the CORD and the Finance Bill protests, these demonstrators were also met with violence from Kenyan police, yet continued their peaceful resistance. “Why are we being beaten and tear-gassed, yet we are peaceful?” activist Mariam Chande asked journalists. “We will keep coming to the streets till the day women will stop being slaughtered like animals.”[33]
[1] Emmanuel Igunza, “‘Not Afraid to Die’: Kenya Tax Protests Inspire Broader Demand for Change,” Al Jazeera, June 27, 2024, https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/6/27/not-afraid-to-die-kenya-tax-protests-inspire-broader-demand-for-change.
[2] Emma Ogao, “Kenyan Protesters Clash with Police over Controversial Tax Bill,” ABC News, June 20, 2024, https://abcnews.go.com/International/kenya-braces-protests-controversial-tax-bill/story?id=111243473.
[3] Nosmot Gbadamosi, “Kenya Protests Continue, Ruto Withdraws Tax Bill,” Foreign Policy, July 3, 2024, https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/07/03/kenya-william-ruto-imf-protests-tax-bill/.
[4] https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2024-07-01-knchr-at-least-39-dead-361-injured-due-to-ongoing-protests
[5] Ibid.
[6] Capitol News Correspondent, “Anti-Finance Bill Demonstrations Underway in Various Parts of the Country,” Capital News, June 20, 2024, https://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/2024/06/anti-finance-bill-demonstrations-underway-in-various-parts-of-the-country/.
[7] Nimo Omer, “Thursday Briefing: How One Controversial Bill Has Kenya on the Brink of Disorder,” The Guardian, July 18, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/18/first-edition-kenya-public-protests-finance-bill.
[8] Fredrick Kimotho, “Finance Bill 2024 Enters the Crucial Stage Following Active Public Participation,” Deloitte, June 18, 2024, https://www.deloitte.com/ke/en/services/tax/analysis/finance-bill-2024-enters-the-crucial-stage.html.
[9] The Finance Bill, 2024. May 9th, 2024. Republic of Kenya, National Assembly Bills, 2024. Kenya Gazette Supplement No. 102 (National Assembly Bills No. 30);“Kenya: Security Forces Abducted, Killed Protesters,” Human Rights Watch, November 6, 2024, https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/11/06/kenya-security-forces-abducted-killed-protesters; Nita Bhalla, “Why Has Kenya’s Finance Bill Triggered Protests?,” Context (Thomson Reuters Foundation, June 27, 2024), https://www.context.news/money-power-people/why-has-kenyas-finance-bill-triggered-public-outrage.
[10] Human Rights Watch, “Security Forces Abducted, Killed Protesters.”
[11] Omer, “One Controversial Bill.”
[12] Ibid.
[13] Ibid.
[14] The G7 is a political and economic forum in which the following countries are a part of: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States
[15] Jason Hickel, “Apartheid in the World Bank and the IMF,” Al Jazeera, November 26, 2020, https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2020/11/26/it-is-time-to-decolonise-the-world-bank-and-the-imf#flips-#ixzz8wsKeqKv0:0.
[16] Fadhel Kaboub, “Why Are the US and IMF Imposing Draconian Austerity Measures on Kenya?,” The Guardian, July 10, 2024, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jul/10/kenya-finance-bill-protests.
[17] Thomas Stubbs et al., “Poverty, Inequality, and the International Monetary Fund: How Austerity Hurts the Poor and Widens Inequality,” Journal of Globalization and Development 13, no. 1 (December 8, 2021), https://doi.org/10.1515/jgd-2021-0018.
[18] Omer, “One Controversial Bill.”
[19] Kaboub, “IMF Imposing Draconian Austerity Measures on Kenya.”
[20] Patrick Gathara, “In Kenya, Tomorrow Is Here,” Al Jazeera, June 25, 2024, https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/6/25/in-kenya-tomorrow-is-here.
[21] Digital Forensic Research Lab, “How Kenya’s Tax Bill Protests Spread Online,” Digital Forensic Research Lab, July 9, 2024, https://dfrlab.org/2024/07/09/how-kenyas-tax-bill-protests-spread-online/.
[22] Ibid.
[23] Job Mwaura, “Kenya Protests: Gen Z Shows the Power of Digital Activism – Driving Change from Screens to the Streets,” The Conversation, June 22, 2024, https://theconversation.com/kenya-protests-gen-z-shows-the-power-of-digital-activism-driving-change-from-screens-to-the-streets-233065.
[24] Igunza, “Not Afraid to Die.”
[25] Mercy Simiyu, “Evans Kiratu Dies after Violent Police Response to Peaceful Anti-Tax Protest,” Nation, June 22, 2024, https://nation.africa/kenya/news/evans-kiratu-dies-after-violent-police-response-to-peaceful-anti-tax-protest-4666304.
[26] Nation Team, “Did They Have to Die? Kin of Those Killed in Anti-Finance Bill Demos Ask,” Nation, June 28, 2024, https://nation.africa/kenya/news/did-they-have-to-die-kin-of-those-killed-in-anti-finance-bill-demos-ask-4672280#story.
[27] Igunza, “Not Afraid to Die.”
[28] Human Rights Watch, “Security Forces Abducted, Killed Protesters.”
[29] Ibid.
[30] Ibid; Gordon Osen, “Family of JKUAT Student Killed, Dumped in Quarry Speak,” The Star, July 10, 2024, https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2024-07-09-family-of-jkuat-student-killed-dumped-in-quarry-speak.
[31] Human Rights Watch, “Security Forces Abducted, Killed Protesters.”.
[32] “Kenya: Police Killings during Protests. Investigate Use of Excessive Force in Western Region,” Human Rights Watch, June 20, 2016, https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/06/21/kenya-police-killings-during-protests.
[33] Evelyne Musambi and Brian Inganga, “Police in Kenya Hurl Tear Gas at Protesters Angry about Gender-Based Violence,” AP News, December 10, 2024, https://apnews.com/article/kenya-femicide-protests-police-nairobi-women-killing-4db1006b745e51dbbed5005f664e632b.
[34] Ibid.