Kenyan police crack down on tax protests; Parliament set on fire

At 3 p.m. Tuesday, a crowd of protesters breached Parliament buildings in Nairobi’s city center after entering the heavily fortified compound. Gunshots could be heard from Kenya’s Parliament, and several people were reported dead on social media. The Post could not confirm a death toll in the incident.

The legislation, dubbed the Finance Bill 2024, was introduced in Kenya’s Parliament for debate in May. It calls for increases in taxable incomes, excise duties and value-added taxes and introduces new income tax categories to the country’s finance laws.

The tax legislation put forward by Kenyan President William Ruto’s government was first debated in Kenya’s Parliament last week. It sailed through to its last stage of debate Tuesday after 195 lawmakers, mainly from the president’s ruling party, voted for it. Voting against it were 1o6 members, mainly from minority opposition parties. The legislation was passed Tuesday as protests continued in various parts of the country.

At least one person, Rex Kanyike Masai, 29, died of a gunshot wound during last week’s protests. Rights groups said more than 200 other people have been injured since the protests began last week.

Masai had left home at 4 p.m. Thursday with his best friend to join the protests and was hit when police fired live ammunition into a crowd of protesters.

“I asked the police for help,” the friend told The Post, speaking on the condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisals. “They refused to help, some saying he had got what he was looking for.” Masai died en route to a hospital, he said.

The demonstrations have largely been branded as Gen Z protests based on the high number of young people who took to the streets.

“What we are seeing is young protesters who do not need to be led by anyone, coming out in the streets to say that they are tired,” said George Mwangi, 32, a taxi driver in Nairobi. “In every generation, there comes a time when the people decide enough is enough, and this is one of those moments,” he said.

Mwangi stayed out of the Nairobi central business district on Tuesday morning, not sure how the protests would turn out. Most Kenyan schools closed for their midterm break a day earlier, with some citing security concerns in memos sent to parents in anticipation of the Tuesday protests.

Most businesses in Nairobi’s central business district were closed early Tuesday as crowds chanted, “Ruto must go,” while some sang the national anthem. Large trucks filled with armed security personnel patrolled the city. There was a heavy security deployment on roads leading to the president’s official residence.

As the day progressed, more protesters came out to march. “We are ready to die for this country,” one protester declared while standing on top of a police truck and holding a placard. When he was arrested, police shot tear gas to disperse the crowd that had gathered in the street.

The Independent Medico Legal Unit (IMLU), a rights group in Kenya made up of lawyers and doctors, told The Post that at least one person died during Tuesday’s protests and that 50 protesters were arrested. Twenty-six other injuries from live bullets, rubber bullets and tear gas canisters were reported by 2 p.m. Tuesday. The IMLU said it was trying to rescue a doctor who was hit in the back by a tear-gas canister while attending to injured protesters. The group was unable to get an ambulance through to her as police had blocked the roads.

Among the controversial clauses in the tax legislation are a proposal to increase tax income earned from digital platforms, a tax on food products such as bread and edible oil, and proposed taxes on contributions made to social security funds. The bill also initially proposed to introduce a tax known as motor vehicle tax at the rate of 2.5 percent of the value of motor vehicle owned, and an environment tax known as an eco-levy tax was proposed to be charged on imported manufactured goods such as sanitary towels, diapers and phones.

Last week, the president’s office announced that tweaks had been made to the proposed finance legislation. “Changes to the Finance Bill have taken into account the views of the people and other stakeholders during public participation sessions,” it said.

Controversial clauses removed from the proposed legislation, the statement said, included a proposed 16 percent value-added tax on bread and proposed taxes on financial services, the motor vehicle tax and proposed increases in mobile money transfer fees and taxes on other products such as vegetable oil. Taxes on some social security programs such as the Social Health Insurance were also scrapped, the statement said.