Hundreds of Kenyans attended a concert in the country’s capital Nairobi, reciting slogans and dancing, to celebrate the multiple dozen people killed in recent anti-government protests.
At least 39 individuals were killed in the protests that began on June 18, as nonconformists pushed for planned tax hikes to be rejected and the resignation of President William Ruto.
“The government is listening now because of the protests. So we are kind of happy, but there’s also a lot of sadness because so many people died for the government to listen,” activist Boniface Mwangi, who was in attendance for the concert, said.
“So we’re also mourning, and we’re telling the families of those who lost their loved ones, we’re with you, and we shall honour their sacrifice.”
At the concert of local artists in Uhuru Park, a vast green space in the centre of Nairobi, youth paraded bulletins reading “RIP Comrades” and “We promise we’ll keep fighting”, while the crowd recited “Ruto must go.” Others hammered crosses into the ground.
As the protests increased last month, Ruto rejected the finance bill, which ought to have introduced a raft of new taxes that Kenyans say would have raised the already significant cost of living.
On Friday, Ruto likewise proposed new grimness measures including lessening the number of his consultants and the disintegration of 47 state partnerships to aid in filling a budget gap induced by the withdrawal of the tax hikes, that was because of a raise in $2.7 billion.
Sunday’s concert took place on Saba Day, July 7, which denotes the day in 1990 when similar protests started eventually compelled the government of the late leader Daniel Arap Moi to return the country to multi-party politics.
