Kenya’s Ruto says finance bill to be withdrawn after deadly protests
Al Jazeera
President William Ruto says he rejects a finance bill that contained a series of tax hikes after nationwide protests.
Kenya’s President William Ruto has said he will not sign a finance bill that led protesters to storm Parliament in anger over rising costs, adding that the bill containing tax hikes would “be withdrawn”.
“I concede and therefore I will not sign the 2024 finance bill and it shall subsequently be withdrawn,” Ruto said in a televised address on Wednesday. “The people have spoken.”
Ruto said he would now start a dialogue with Kenyan young people, without going into details, and work on austerity measures – starting with cuts to the budget of the presidency – to make up the difference in the country’s finances.
His comments came after dozens of people were reported killed and scores more wounded as police broke up rallies against the contentious bill.
The move will be seen as a major victory for the week-old protest movement that grew from online condemnations of the proposed tax increases into mass rallies demanding a political overhaul, in the most serious crisis of Ruto’s two-year-old presidency.
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