Kenya tax protests updates: Ruto declines signing finance bill after unrest

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For more on the latest developments in Kenya, read our news update here, and for a look at the controversial finance bill and what sparked the recent unrest, listen to our podcast here.

As we bring our live coverage to an end, here’s a summary of today’s main events:

• Kenya’s President William Ruto, in an address to the nation, said he concedes and will not sign the controversial finance bill that sparked nationwide deadly unrest.
• Al Jazeera’s reporters in Kenya, and independent analysts, said people in the country remain deeply sceptical of the government, despite the president’s decision to withdraw the bill.
• The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, a state-funded rights organisation, said at least 22 people were killed in Tuesday’s protests in Kenya.
• The Kenya Medical Association said at least 13 people were killed in Tuesday’s protests.

• On Thursday, a High Court in Kenya is expected to hear a challenge to a government order to deploy the army to the capital in the wake of the protests, the court said.

Kenyans on social media have expressed scepticism over Ruto’s televised address, noting that he had the opportunity to withdraw the bill in yesterday’s speech, but chose to not do so.

“Yesterday’s speech is what is in his heart. He made that speech trying to intimidate us and he saw it won’t work hence the PR,” a user named Hanifa said on X. “The bill is withdrawn but are you going to bring everyone that died back alive ??”

Journalist Amina Wako said withdrawing the financial bill “is just a small step, but it’s not enough to solve our problems”.

“I witnessed police brutality against peaceful protesters, and it’s clear that this goes beyond the Finance Bill. It’s time for genuine leadership and meaningful change, not just symbolic gestures,” she wrote on X.

Another Kenyan warned that the government wants to pass a bill that would “make it almost impossible to protest like we have been doing.

“And he’s said it himself that they will try again next year. If this bill passes, next year we won’t have a voice to reject this finance bill.”

Some of the responses from social media users show there’s still a great deal of scepticism about what Ruto is saying.

One of the things people have been pointing out is that if the president doesn’t sign the bill into law, if he doesn’t ascend it, then it automatically becomes law within three weeks anyway.

The only way that it can be retracted is if parliament retracted the bill. That’s what Ruto said his MPs had agreed to do.

The parliament has gone into recess now and it’s expected to be in recess until late July, which would pass that 21-day limit.

People on social media are saying they think this is just a distraction and the bill will still be automatically passed by that constitutional parliamentary process.

It points to a deep lack of trust in what the president is saying. People who have been demonstrating on the streets and the critics on social media feel they’ve been lied to so many times before and clearly, that sentiment still persists among many.

President Ruto has dramatically reversed course on the government’s controversial finance bill after deadly protests.

But why are young Kenyans so aggrieved?

From taxes on basics, to road maintenance levies, to high prices and unemployment, these are some of the main issues that led to the recent unrest.

President William Ruto started the beginning of his address defending his record, saying things he’s done to reduce Kenya’s debt burden, and he also tried to justify various clauses in the finance bill, trying to raise taxes for various programmes.

One of the reasons leading to these growing crowds on the streets over the last eight days is because there’s been a lack of trust in these programmes and what people feel is just a lack of evidence on the ground that these things are actually helping.

People say they see declining services and very visible corruption; people feel that the money that is being raised is being misused or stolen.

Ruto talked about the constituency development fund. He said that in the budget they put tens of thousands of dollars equivalent of Kenyan shillings, for each constituency for creating digital jobs as one of the programmes. He was defending the proposed finance bill, saying now we have to find another way to raise that money.

Speaking to people on the street in the last week, the constituency development fund is one of the many parts of the budget that people are deeply sceptical about.

They say that’s money that just goes to MPs without any accountability at all, so that money is essentially patronage, or a form of bribery from the government to the MPs to steal.

That’s what they believe happens to most of this money.

Kenya’s High Court will on Thursday hear a challenge to a government order to deploy the army to the capital, the court said in an official notice on Wednesday.

President Ruto announced on Tuesday that the military would support police following the nationwide deadly protests against tax rises.

Responding to questions from journalists, Ruto said about the tax protests:

“About 214 Kenyans were involved in various escalations and many of them went to hospital; 95 of them were treated and released. I think one is still in ICU and others, I think 14, are still in hospital, but the majority of them were treated and released yesterday.

“On those who lost their lives, there will be a mechanism of how they will be accounted for.”

In his address, President Ruto continued:

“I also propose that equally parliament, judiciary and county governments working with the national treasury also to undertake budget cuts and austerity to ensure that we do live within our means, respecting the very loud message that is coming from the people of Kenya.”

“It has become evident that members of the public still insist on the need for us to make more concessions,” President Ruto continued.

“I run a government, but I also lead people, and the people have spoken,” he said.

“I am grateful to all the members of the National Assembly who voted yesterday, affirmatively, for the finance bill 2024, as amended on the floor of the house to incorporate the views generated through public participation.

“Following the passing of the bill, the country witnessed a widespread expression of dissatisfaction … regrettably resulting in the loss of life, destruction of property and desecration of constitutional institutions…

“Having reflected on the continuing conversation around the content of the finance bill 2024, and listening keenly to the people of Kenya, who have said loudly that they want nothing to do with this finance bill 2024, I concede and therefore I will not sign the 2024 finance bill and it shall subsequently be withdrawn.”

President William Ruto is addressing the nation.

“It is instructive for the nation to know that for every 100 shillings we collect as taxes, we spend 61 shillings in debt service,” he said.

“We have paid Kenya’s Eurobond debt that was borrowed in 2014 of $2bn that has been hanging around our neck.”

“We paid the last instalment of $500m last week,” he added.

“Today, Kenya’s debt burden is much less, more sustainable and we’re on course to redeem our country from the discomfort of debt and assert our sovereignty.”

Al Jazeera’s Malcolm Webb, reporting from Nairobi, says local media have been saying that President Ruto may send the finance bill back to parliament and not sign it.

That would give members of parliament another chance to reject the bill, but there hasn’t been confirmation from the presidency yet, Webb said.

“We’ve learned today from the Kenyan Medical Association that demonstrations took place in about 60 different towns and cities, or about three-quarters of Kenya’s counties,” he said.

“One of the things that’s striking is how quickly this movement has grown. There is certainly a growing amount of pressure on the government and on President Ruto to try and find a way to navigate out of this situation when protesters are calling for yet more demonstrations to take place on Thursday.”

There has been “no physical subsea cable damage yet identified” in Kenya, according to internet monitor Netblocks.

On Tuesday, Kenya experienced an internet outage amid the nationwide protests. The leading telecommunications firm Safaricom said there was an outage of undersea cables that deliver internet to the country.

Kenya’s Star newspaper is reporting that President Ruto declined to sign the highly contentious finance bill that caused nationwide deadly protests and has sent it back to parliament for amendments.

There is no official confirmation of this yet but Ruto is expected to address the nation in about 20 minutes.

We will bring you all the major talking points from Ruto’s speech on this live page.

Stella Agara, a Kenyan tax justice activist, told Al Jazeera that she is very disappointed that President Ruto “has listened to nobody” regarding the deeply unpopular finance bill.

“I’m concerned that the voice of Kenyans is no longer being heard by the government,” she said, adding that her concerns also expand to the Bretton Woods institutions and the IMF, which have been pressuring the government.

The government is used to “stopping protests by using violence by using force”, she said, but it did not expect the level of resistance from Gen Z protesters.

Agara added that the proposed taxes on digital tools will affect young people, especially content creators, who are part of the gig economy, a group for which the government has repeatedly promised to provide jobs.

When a group does not have access to an income, and you tax the niche that they have created for themselves to have a livelihood, you will get a knee-jerk reaction, she said.

Dozens of youths looted goods worth millions of shillings before setting fire to the office of Naivasha MP Jayne Kihara on Tuesday evening, Kenya’s The Star media outlet reports.

The youth looted Naivas supermarket before torching Kihara’s office, the report said.

“We have arrested 130 suspects who were found looting the supermarket and we are tracking those who vandalised and burnt the MP’s office,” the report quoted Naivasha subcounty police commander Stephen Kirui as saying.

One of the youth leaders, Mike Mbugua, said the demonstration was initially peaceful but had been invaded by criminals with the sole aim of looting.

As we’ve been reporting, medics are treating “160 people … some of them with soft tissue injuries, some of them with bullet wounds”, AFP reported citing an official at Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi.

Simon Kigondu, president of the Kenya Medical Association, said at least 13 people were killed in Tuesday’s protests, adding that he had never seen “such level of violence against unarmed people”.

Protesters stormed the parliament on Tuesday as gunshots rang out in the capital.

Authorities are now saying at least 22 people were killed in the deadly protests.

The violence erupted over a new bill to increase taxes. According to protesters, it could have a devastating effect on many Kenyans’ lives.

What ignited these protests, and why are young people leading them?

Listen to the discussion on our podcast below: