A protesters throws back a teargas canister at police officers during a protest over proposed tax hikes in a finance bill that is due to be tabled in parliament in Nairobi, Kenya, Thursday, June 20, 2024. (AP Photo/ Andrew Kasuku)
Kenyan youth are leading popular protests against regressive tax reforms that will worsen the country’s worsening cost of living crisis.
The original article was first published on Africa is a Country, and part of their series of reposts from The Elephant, curated by regional editor Wangui Kimari.
As Rasna Warah writes, a significant event took place in Nairobi on June 18. This is the first time in Kenya’s history that a movement led by younger generations, especially Gen Z, has organised large-scale street protests against the Finance Bill 2024.
This Bill proposes high taxes which will cause an increase in living expenses and business costs in the country. If approved, it will allow the state to access individuals’ personal information, such as banking information and mobile payment accounts, ignoring the current digital privacy regulations that give us protection
The group assembled in the streets of Nairobi were not the typical crowd that usually showed up at rallies; instead they were youth including workers and professionals from various social classes.
This impromptu organic movement held significance in three key ways. Firstly, it had no leadership; no politicians or political figures were in charge, and it was not linked to any political group. Secondly, the protest movement was heavily influenced by social media, with the message to participate being spread primarily through platforms such as X and TikTok.
In the protests, civil society organizstions that typically focused on good governance and accountability were noticeably missing in recent decades. Similarly to the Occupy Wall Street movement during Barack Obama’s presidency after the 2008 global financial crisis, the movement bears resemblance to the “Arab Spring” in North Africa, protests leading to the removal of Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir in 2019, and the increasingly popular climate change movement led by young activists such as Greta Thunberg.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Rasna Warah is a Kenyan writer and journalist. In a previous incarnation, she was an editor at the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat). She has published two books on Somalia: War Crimes (2014) and Mogadishu Then and Now (2012).
