Ruto on the ropes over economic turmoil
Publish date: 22 July 2024
Issue Number: 1086
Diary: IBA Legalbrief Africa
Category: Kenya
Kenya's Government last week ratcheted up its appeal for weeks of protests to stop and police tried to ban demonstrations in the heart of the capital Nairobi only to be overruled in court. However, Legalbrief reports that there are growing calls for President William Ruto to step down. The embattled leader on Friday named a partial new Cabinet as he starts a process to form a ‘broad-based’ government, after a month of widespread and sometimes deadly protests against his administration. Police introduced the ban on demonstrations, saying the protests, which have claimed at least 50 lives over the past month, have been infiltrated by criminal gangs. But a Nairobi court suspended the ban while a case challenging it was heard. Some activists called for people to gather with camping gear to ‘occupy’ Uhuru Park adjacent to the city centre, amid a heavy police presence across Nairobi. News24 reports that the youth-led protests across Kenya against proposed tax hikes have continued even after Ruto withdrew the legislation. Activists say they want Ruto to resign and are calling for reforms to clean up corruption and address poor governance. The country has lost approximately 6bn Kenyan shillings ($45m) as a result of the demonstrations, government spokesperson Isaac Mwaura said, without explaining how he arrived at that figure. The President and the government at large (have) heard you loud and clear and we are ready to act on your concerns,’ Mwaura said in a televised statement.
Voice of America reports that Ruto unveiled the names of 11 proposed Ministers as he seeks to contain the worst crisis of his nearly two-year presidency. ‘While the events of the past month have caused tremendous anxiety, concern and uncertainty, the crisis has presented us with a great opportunity, as a nation, to craft a broad-based, and inclusive citizen coalition for national transformation and progress, made up of Kenyans from all walks of life,’ Ruto said in a televised address. ‘Consequently, I have started the process of forming a new broad-based cabinet to assist in driving the urgently needed and irreversible transformation of our country.’ He put forward 11 names for cabinet ministers and the attorney general that will go before parliament for approval. However, several of those nominated were members of the previous government, including Kithure Kindiki at the head of the Interior Ministry, which is in charge of Kenya's under-fire police force.
Ruto has also escalated diplomatic tensions with the US by accusing the Ford Foundation of funding recent unrest in the East African nation. Business Day Africa reports that he accused the US-based philanthropic organisation of financing groups responsible for the recent wave of violence that has gripped several regions. He did not provide specific evidence to support his claims, but said he would name additional NGOs suspected of sponsoring the demonstrations that have crippled the country over the past month. ‘We want to ask the Ford Foundation, the money that they are dishing out to create chaos, how will it benefit them?’ Ruto said in the local Kiswahili dialect. ’We are going to call them out and we are going to tell them if they are not interested in democracy in Kenya, if they are going to sponsor violence and anarchy, they either style up or leave.’ The Ford Foundation strongly refuted Ruto's claims, stating it does not condone violence in any way.
The events of 25 June – when countrywide anti-tax protests culminated in the storming of Parliament in Nairobi – seem to have caught Ruto by surprise. In a Mail & Guardian analysis, Ken Opalo notes that he may have thought that he had sufficiently demobilised all opposition after he cut a ‘ceasefire’ deal with former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, and nominated him to head the African Union. ‘Or perhaps he made a cynical calculation that his new taxes were most salient among the 3m Kenyans in the formal economy, and so wouldn’t come with much political cost as long as he had the countryside onside. That would fit with his administration’s ongoing embrace of class war rhetoric to shut down dissent. He could also have been distracted by the adulation he has been receiving from foreign governments and organisations since entering office. As of the start of last month, he had made 62 visits to 38 countries in just 20 months. What Ruto failed to notice was the effect of his own presidential campaign, which castigated Uhuru Kenyatta (and Odinga) for excessive borrowing, high taxes, wasteful subsidies, poor services, and a raft of anti-poor policies in an economy that was rigged to favour the establishment. Forget that he was part of the establishment as Deputy President.’
