“I concede”: Kenya’s President Withdraws Finance Bill 2024 after Youth-led Protests, Outcry against Police Brutality

He also proposed that “a multi-sectoral, multi- stakeholder engagement be held with a view to charting the way forward on matters relating to the content of the bill ...as well as auxiliary issues raised in recent days on the need for austerity measures and strengthening our fight against corruption."

Shortly after his address to the nation on June 26, President Ruto is reported to have formally written a memorandum to Kenyan legislators, stating, "In exercise of the powers conferred to me by Article 115(1)(b) of the Constitution, and having reservations on the content of the Bill in its entirety, I decline to assent to the Finance Bill, 2024, and refer the Bill for reconsideration by the National Assembly with the recommendation for deletion of the clauses thereof".

The protests against the Finance Bill 2024 started on June 18, the day the Bill was tabled in parliament for debate, with hundreds of youths and some human rights activists taking to the streets of Nairobi to urge the legislators not to vote for the Bill during its second reading that was scheduled for June 20.

On June 20, the Gen Z-led protests took place in at least 18 Kenyan cities and townships, with protestors saying they are not satisfied with the announced amendments to the Bill that aimed to raise US$2.7 billion through additional taxes and want the entire Bill rejected. 

Still, Kenya’s legislators approved the Bill. They met again on Tuesday, June 25, and approved the proposed amendments to the Finance Bill 2024, the very day Kenyan youths led street protests across the country.

The protestors chanted “Ruto must go” and “Zakayo shuka” slogans, the latter a favourable comparison of President Ruto to Zacchaeus, the wealthy chief tax collector, who was asked by Jesus Christ to come down from the sycamore-fig tree he had climbed to have a glimpse of Jesus.

At the intervention of the police, the protests turned violent, with protesters burning government property, including those associated with Kenyan politicians, who have expressed support for the controversial Bill. 

Some 53 people reportedly lost their lives during the protests, 30 of them in Nairobi’s Githurai settlement and the other 23 countrywide, especially in Nairobi streets, according to Kenyatta National Hospital and the Police Reforms Working Group (PRWG), a conglomeration of civil society groups. 

It is not clear how President Ruto’s concession to calls to withdraw the controversial Finance Bill will affect the previously planned youth-led protests for Thursday, June 27, with a section of the protesters demanding that the Kenyan President resigns alongside the legislators and fresh elections be held. 

As the June 25 street protests were going on, members of the Kenyan Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB) quickly convened a press conference in which they called for calm across the East African nation.

Apart from decrying and condemning “in the strongest terms, the use of force by the police, the arrests, and the indiscriminate and unnecessary use of live bullets,” the section of KCCB members, who convened at Roussel House of Donum Dei Missionary Sisters in Karen, Nairobi, expressed their support for the youth-led protests against the Finance Bill 2024.

The Catholic Bishops expressed their “genuine intent to support young people” who, KCCB members said, had been shortchanged by the government.

“We, the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops, understand the desperation of the young people,” the Bishops said. They said they found the young people’s actions “understandable”, and added, “We commend them for being proactive citizens.”

The Bishops lauded the young protesters for their efforts to maintain peace despite the brutalities that were meted against them by the Kenyan police who were also accused of killing a section of the protesters.

They said, “We are encouraged and must applaud you, the young people, for keeping away from looting and violence. We appreciate that you have generated a slogan that ‘we are peaceful.’  This is a step in the right direction.”

(Story continues below)

The KCCB members blamed the government for misappropriating funds that could otherwise go into job creation for the youths. They said, “We have consistently called on the Government to be responsible for creating an environment in which young people can use their knowledge to create jobs, get employed, or pursue meaningful opportunities. We are yet to see a clear and well-defined roadmap to end.”

“The billions siphoned from taxpayer money, for example, are enough to employ thousands of youths,” the Catholic Church leaders said.

They however appealed to the young protesters in the East African country to use their creativity and innovativeness to address the country’s economic woes.

“Even as we commend you GenZ for being proactive, we would like to advise that in themselves protests will not solve the problem of government insensitivity in addressing problems like the Finance Bill,” KCCB members said.

They added, “With your creativity and innovative technology tools available, which you are using to organize yourselves and pass your message to the government, you need to consider more innovative approaches to draw constructive engagement to address the social and economic woes our country is facing.”

“Do not give up on pursuing direct engagement with the government and other stakeholders. We also encourage patience as you engage,” Kenya’s Catholic Bishops said in their six-page eight-point collective statement that was read out in turns, beginning with KCCB Chairman, Archbishop Maurice Muhatia Makumba.

They also cautioned the young protesters against falling into traps set by parties that may be interested in their platform for selfish gain.

“There are people out there whose interests are to capitalize on your grievances to advance their agenda. We ask you to be on guard so that you may not be misused for goals that are not part of your genuine concerns,” Catholic Bishops in Kenya said on June 25.

They called upon the people of God in the East African nation to participate in a Novena, saying, “We take this chance to invite all our Kenyan Catholics that this evening we are beginning a novena to the sacred heart of Jesus Christ, a prayer of nine days….to pray for our country.”