Kenya Police Disperse Protesters Over Tax Hikes

Police in Kenya have fired tear gas and used water cannons to disperse protesters gathering near parliament in the capital to demonstrate against planned tax hikes that many fear will worsen the cost-of-living crisis.

Tense scenes played out in Nairobi  as hundreds took to the streets in opposition to a finance bill, which proposes introducing new taxes and levies that would increase the price of basic goods.

The tax increases were projected to raise $2.7 billion , equivalent to 1.9 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), and reduce the budget deficit from 5.7 percent to 3.3 percent of GDP.

The cash-strapped government of President William Ruto agreed to make concessions, watering down the bill after hundreds of mostly young protesters clashed with police.

But the government will still go ahead with some tax increases and has defended the proposed hikes as necessary for filling its coffers and cutting reliance on external borrowing.

Protesters have decided to stage demonstrations across the country, including in the Indian Ocean city of Mombasa and the lakeside city of Kisumu, both opposition bastions.

In Nairobi, lawmakers debated the bill in its second reading before parliament. The final version must pass before June 30. Meanwhile, authorities blocked several roads near parliament and made a heavy police deployment.

A lot of protesters here are young people, social media users. It looks very different from the kinds of protests that we saw in Kenya just over a year ago called for by the political opposition also about the rising cost of living.

The cost of living has been going up, on and off, since the global COVID-19 pandemic.

The government has now decided to increase fuel prices and export taxes to fill the void left by the changes, a move critics say will make life more expensive in a country already battling high inflation.