The Kenyan government is not yielding to popular and religious demands to repeal an ill-advised financial law, and popular protests have threatened to return to the streets, just days away from fierce clashes with riot police.
Representatives of different social groups have announced new proposals, most of which have been called for by the political opposition. The protests that have taken place so far have been violently repressed, and it is to be expected that if the roads are reoccupied, the bloodshed will increase.
The government has also turned a deaf ear to pleas made by religious leaders and officials to the Kenyan state and government. One of these requests was made by the archbishopric.
The statements of Anthony Muheria, Archbishop of Nyeri, of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB) were addressed a few days ago to President William Ruto, calling for an immediate repeal of the finance law.
New Kenya protests were held on July 19-20. Demonstrators hurled rocks at police and burned tyres in the streets, while the security forces fired volleys of tear gas, witnesses said. It was the third round of anti-government demonstrations the opposition called this month. pic.twitter.com/yAb5gqJAit
— Revolution Radio ⚪ (@Freedom_Slips) July 23, 2023
“The high cost of living has placed a heavy burden on individuals and families by making it difficult to obtain livelihoods and maintain a decent standard of living,” declared the Archbishop of Nyeri at a time when peaceful Protestants were repressed in the street.
However, the government did not take any distance from its zero-dialogue position. On July 20, after several days of protest, the level of repression intensified. Faced with these facts, the bishops continued to express themselves in a condemnatory and forceful manner.
This time, they denounced the police brutality with which the protests were met: “The police cannot be used to brutalize innocent Kenyans; such acts are unacceptable and should not be tolerated under any circumstances,” said the religious leader.
We have today made a decision that on Wednesday, 26th July 2023, we will hold a different kind of protest.
The peaceful protests will take the form of solidarity parades and vigil for victims of police brutality in various locations in all parts of the country. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/2BFM84j1ep
— Raila Odinga (@RailaOdinga) July 24, 2023
The current crisis situation in Kenya is mainly due to its high external debt, aggravated by the weakening of its local currency and the turbulence of the international economy. The annual payment of the Kenyan doubt is more than 5000 billion dollars. The country is in real danger of going bankrupt, and in the face of this urgency, Ruto has panicked and created totally unfeasible economic reforms in the country. He has abolished subsidies and raised taxes without taking into account the most vulnerable sectors. In July alone, 27 people were killed in clashes between police and demonstrators.
Added to the conflict is the dispute between the president-elect and the opposition, which continues to denounce as illegal the election process that brought Ruto to power, and the increase in the number of deaths of the members of the “fasting sect,” which according to the authorities already exceeds 400 dead from the exhumations that continue to be carried out in Sakaola.
