Business, government count cost of Kenya's protests
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STORY: Francis Ochieng is struggling to come to terms with the damage inflicted on his business in Nairobi. Days of anti-government protests in Kenya were accompanied by some vandalism and looting. Ochieng says he's lost almost $10,000 after his shop was set ablaze. "It is hard, I do not know where to start, and I have a family, I have a wife with a small child and school going children, so from that day I have not eaten, you see how I am right now, I do not know where to start." :: June 26, 2024 Someone else likely counting the cost of the unrest, Kenya's President William Ruto. "I will not sign the 2024 finance bill." His withdrawal of support for a finance bill has complicated efforts to tackle Kenya's heavy debt burden. Public borrowing is 68% of GDP, higher than the 55% recommended by the World Bank and the IMF. The IMF has urged Kenya to meet revenue targets to access more funding. The unpopular finance bill would have aimed to raise $2.7 billion through taxes on items including bread, cooking oil and diapers. But now Kenya is shifting from raising revenues to cutting spending. Ruto has said he will work on austerity measures, starting with cuts to the budget of the presidency. But political analyst James Shikwati said the protests have exposed deeper issues in Kenya. "So there is a finance bill but there is also how the government is enacting its measures to widen the tax base and those measures are actually stifling or killing enterprises and its enterprises that employ young people." :: File Shikwati said Ruto's election campaign message of two years ago, when he portrayed himself as a champion of low-income "hustlers", had come back to bite him and that young people are "really, really mad at him". Some activists say they don't trust the government won't still try to implement tax rises. And many have vowed to keep calling for Ruto to step down.
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