Everyone has a bone to pick with the Finance Bill, 2024.
Tuesday, June 18th will forever be etched in history. It was a day when a revolution was born, a revolution that has seen Kenyan youth take their rightful place in determining the well-being of their country.
The Kenyan government has undertaken a slew of measures to make life as unbearable as possible for the Kenyan citizenry, all in the guise of raising more revenue to oversee its activities. In the words of Justine Wamae, a commentator on social-political affairs in Kenya, the payslips of many employed Kenyans are ‘active crime scenes’ as the government has imposed countless deductions on their salaries.
In addition to raising the income tax rates on individual income, the government has expanded the tax regime by introducing a mandatory affordable housing levy and social health insurance payment. Furthermore, the government has raised VAT tax on goods such as bread, alcohol, monetary transaction fees, telecommunication services, digital content, and electronic equipment, just to name a few.
There have also been increased taxes on imported goods such as non-local sugar and some types of plastics and other synthetic materials which may lead to increased prices of commodity goods such as diapers and sanitary towels. Trust funds, pension payments, and income from infrastructure bond investments also fall into the taxable regime.
Before you read on: Find out why the Finance Bill of 2024 is such a big deal.
The government seems to be placing the burden of dealing with the country’s precarious financial situation upon the shoulders of the ordinary citizens, without a care in the world. The country is currently grappling with unsustainably high debt levels, a weakening fiscal and monetary environment, and low foreign currency reserves. Years of mismanagement and misuse of public resources have brought us to where we are today. The Kenyan government would never own up to this, of course, choosing to straddle the normal ‘mwananchi’ with the weight of carrying this burden.
Kenyans have suffered in silence for years, and President Ruto’s two years in power have only served to worsen the situation. However, he and his cronies were in for a rude shock. They were met with the resistance of a generation that is tired of their oppressive and manipulative rule; a generation that chose to stand up and fight back.
The crafters of the Finance Bill expected the journey to meet their end goal to be an extremely smooth one. Sure, they expected some backlash from the obvious knuckleheads on X, but they must have looked at each other and muttered, “Kwani watadoo?” (What are they going to do?). Turns out, the answer to that was more straightforward than expected.
It started as a simple poster circulating across social media, encouraging the masses to turn up on Tuesday, 18th June 2024, and #OccupyParliament. In the lead-up to D-Day, the contacts of various ‘waheshimiwas’ were shared and Kenyans were encouraged to reach out to their leaders and prompt them to vote against the Finance Bill in parliament. It started as a joke. But many Kenyans were surprisingly on board with the idea.
Then came the day of the occasion. No one, not even the police could have anticipated the huge number of young people who showed up. These protests could be rightly dubbed as the Gen-Z protests as a huge chunk of the majority of the people who showed up fall into this age bracket. These young people showed up out of their own volition, many showed up just from seeing the poster from hearing about the planned protests from their peers. All in all, this was evidence that a generation of young people was now fed up with the current regime and its oppressive governance mechanisms.
Tuesday’s protests have been dubbed as being incredibly peaceful, organized, and without chaos. The only people who were concerned with brewing trouble were the police who went around arresting innocent individuals who were exercising their constitutional mandate in choosing to picket against the government. However, even in the face of these unlawfully executed motives, the young protestors remained calm and did not grapple with the authoritative government forces keen on silencing properties.
Despite the occasional tear gas canister explosion, Nairobi CBD remained extremely calm. No properties or businesses were broken into; at least not by the protestors. This was not just a chaotic mob, but an organized lot, keen on passing their message to the elected individuals in parliament who have every right to listen to what they have to say.
Tuesday saw the power of slacktivism in action. Today’s political revolutions are assuredly taking place online. It should be remembered that these protests were organized and coordinated through various online and social media platforms. |Kenya has a very strong social media global standing; by the end of Tuesday in fact, #OccupyParliament and #RejectFinanceBill stat atop of the global charts for the most trending topics.
It was Kenya’s most influential content creators who were at the forefront of organizing, coordinating, and leading the protests. Some familiar activists and civil societies were also at the forefront of these protests.
No one in the corridors of power saw this happening. No one. Most, especially the very members of parliament who are to vote on the Finance Bill before it is ascended into Law, still couldn’t comprehend what was unfolding before them. No one expected the youth to actually leave the comfort of their homes, from ranting behind the screens of their addictive mobile devices to showing up to protest and picket. Concessions were made. The Bill dropped some of its most dire provisions. But these young Kenyans can read the bluff being played here. They want the entire Bill rescinded and discarded.
Democracy won today. But this is like a victory in the first battle of a war. More needs to be done. This government is headed by some dim-witted, tough-knuckle individuals who may need to hear this message more than once for it to register cleanly. We have to keep to keep reminding them. And we won’t stop until our demands are met.
Someone tell President Ruto that we are watching!!
Tuesday in Pictures, Tweets and memes!
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