After Dramatic Tax Win, Kenyan Protesters Plot Next Moves

Summary

• Protesters plan to campaign against corruption.
• President Ruto has proposed dialogue with young people.
• Protest movement diffuse without any formal structures.
• Some disagreements among protesters after Ruto withdraws the bill.

NAIROBI, June 28 (Reuters) – Following their stunning success in forcing the government to shelve $2.7 billion in tax hikes, young Kenyan activists are now setting their sights on combating deeply ingrained corruption and misgovernance.

Protesters argue that the finance bill President William Ruto abandoned on Wednesday was only a symptom of broader issues plaguing the country, where many young people face dwindling job prospects despite strong economic growth. The movement has little precedent in its mass mobilization of Kenyans across ethnic and regional divisions while rejecting any kind of political leadership. Historically, protests in Kenya have been led by elites, often ending in power-sharing deals that yielded few tangible benefits for demonstrators.

Protesters now face the challenge of maintaining unity and momentum while pursuing broader, less immediate goals. They will also have to decide how to respond to Ruto’s offer of dialogue, made on Wednesday without offering specifics. Christine Odera, co-chair of the Kenya Coalition on Youth, Peace, and Security, a civil society organization, emphasized the need for more formalized structures to advance the interests of young people and facilitate discussions with the government.

“If we go organically, then we might lose the whole conversation,” said Odera, who participated in the protests. “The president has said we need to have conversations. All of us cannot sit in a stadium and have a conversation.”

Others strongly disagree. Ojango Omondi, a member of the Social Justice Centres Working Group, a community activist group in a poor district of Nairobi, argued that creating formal structures and designating national representatives could allow the movement to be corrupted by politicians.

“We don’t need to negotiate anything,” he said. “All we want is better living conditions. All we want is the leaders to stop using our resources to sponsor their lavish lifestyle.”

Question of Unity

Omondi said there was plenty to keep the past week’s protesters engaged – from organizing funerals for the nearly two dozen people killed in clashes with police on Tuesday to forcing recall elections against members of parliament.

Another key moment could be the government’s next bid to pass a finance bill, which is needed to fund expenditures in the upcoming fiscal year. Some protesters suspect the government will still try to push through tax raises.

In a country where ethnic affinities have traditionally been a key driver of protest, the current youth-driven demonstrations have stood out for building unity around common grievances. However, cracks are already emerging.

Despite Ruto’s U-turn on the tax hikes, some protesters called for a planned march on the presidential residence to go ahead on Thursday in an attempt to force the president from power. Others rejected the idea as a dangerous gambit.

In the end, there were protests in several cities, although they were smaller than on Tuesday. In Ruto’s hometown and political stronghold of Eldoret, where thousands from different ethnic groups took to the streets on Tuesday, a human rights activist noted that some tensions were resurfacing since the president withdrew the bill.

Nicholas Omito, CEO of the Centre for Human Rights and Mediation, said demonstrators from Ruto’s Kalenjin ethnic group argued that protests should end now that the bill was dropped. Ethnic Kikuyu demonstrators insisted they should continue until Ruto resigned.

Nyabola, the writer, acknowledged that the solidarity on display as Kenyans across all walks of life took to the streets in the bold showdown with their government could not undo the country’s long history of ethnic division.

“You’re never going to get rid of it completely,” she said. “But for now, the class and wealth disparity between politicians and ordinary people has been the focus.”