Kenyan President William Ruto has announced a 177 billion budget cut to seal the budget hole left after the withdrawal of the finance bill. This comes after protests led to the cancellation of contentious tax hikes, which resulted in the deaths of 39 people.
For three straight weeks, protesters marched on the streets of Kenya, disrupting commercial activities for the third week since the protests against the Finance Bill broke out on June 18.
All of a sudden, the protests took a deadly turn as protesters occupied the parliament, defying police’s teargas, water cannons and live bullets.
Littered all over the internet were footage of police opening live rounds on protesters, live bullet shells, and corpses of protesters from Kenya which sparked global outrage against Mr Ruto, who immediately announced the withdrawal of the bill.
Kenya National Commission on Human Rights reported that 39 were killed, hundreds injured, and over 30 enforced disappearances were recorded.
Despite announcing the withdrawal of the bill, Amnesty International had accused Mr Ruto of deploying snipers to shoot down protesters, calling for his trial at the International Criminal Court.
He also dissolved 47 agencies, suspending non-essential travels for officials.
He added that ‘The office of the first lady and that of the deputy president’s spouse will cease to exist and the number of government advisors slashed by 50%.
“All non-essential travel by state and public officers is hereby suspended and no state officer or public servant will participate in harambee.”
He added, “In keeping up with the austerity measures we promised, 47 State corporations with overlapping and duplicating functions to be dissolved and affected staff to be transferred to other ministries.”
