Kenyan president terms street protests treasonous, military deployed

NAIROBI, Kenya | Xinhua | Kenyan President William Ruto termed Tuesday’s street protests in the East African nation as treasonous, noting that his government will soon provide an expeditious response to the situation.

In his televised address to the nation, Ruto said the government has mobilized all its resources to ensure the situation does not occur again “at whatever cost.”

He directed security organs to use all means possible to thwart any threats to the country’s national security.

“It is possible that the criminals who reigned terror on innocent people and challenged our security organs are likely to continue with this behaviour,” he said, adding that the planners, financiers and abetters of the protests would not go scot-free.

Ruto’s remarks came a few hours after at least five protestors were shot dead and more than 150 others injured as protests erupted countrywide for the second week in a row against new taxation measures proposed.

The protestors gathered in various towns across Kenya, including the capital Nairobi, where they breached the heavily guarded premises to enter both the National Assembly and the Senate, destroying property and marching into the buildings despite police firing live bullets in the air.

In his address, Ruto said the government would not tolerate crime masked as democratic expression. “The government will secure the nation and any threats to national security are a danger to the Republic and will be dealt with,” he said.

The president observed that the national conversation on what affects the nation would only be done under the rule of law, constitutionalism, and respect for the nation.

Ruto spoke as Aden Duale, the cabinet secretary for defence, gazetted the deployment of the Kenya Defence Forces to aid the police in curbing protests.

The Kenya Defence Forces were deployed on Tuesday in support of the National Police Service in response to the security emergency caused by ongoing violent protests in various parts of the country, Duale said.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta appealed for calm and dialogue, noting that he is saddened by the loss of lives occasioned by the protests.

Kenyatta asked elected leaders to listen to the people’s grievances, calling for calm and for the leadership “to show restraint and do the right thing by listening to the people and not be antagonistic to them.”

The lawmakers on Tuesday morning passed the contentious finance bill 2024, seeking to raise an additional 346.7 billion shillings (2.67 billion U.S. dollars), by such measures as increasing the railway development levy from 1.5 percent to 2.5 percent and the import declaration fee from 2.5 percent to 3.5 percent.

The legislators also imposed an eco-levy on imported items like smartphones and electronics, noting they end up as electronic waste damaging the environment.

Ruto, who won the elections in August 2022 on the platform of helping the poor, has been under pressure to raise additional revenues in the country amid rising government debt repayments.

The finance bill was thus amended to remove the proposed 16 percent VAT on bread, transportation of sugar, financial services, foreign exchange transactions, and the 2.5 percent motor vehicle tax.

There will be no increase in mobile money transfer fees, and the excise duty on vegetable oil has also been removed. Levies on the housing fund and the proposed one on social health insurance will not attract income tax. ■