By International Workers’ Unity – Fourth International
26 June 2024. For years, the IMF has hanged Kenya. The parliament approved the fiscal budget with which the government of William Ruto seeks to increase taxes on food and fuel to pay the external debt maturities to the IMF. Thousands took to the streets in opposition. The police in their repression killed 17 demonstrators. Ruto sent 600 police to Haiti to begin the military intervention. Down with the budget of Ruto and the IMF! Stop the repression! Kenyan police out of Haiti!
Kenya has more than 54 million inhabitants, of whom 31 million live in poverty and 73 per cent suffer from severe financial difficulties or cannot make ends meet. In this context, an increase in necessities through tax increases would push Kenyan workers even further into hunger and poverty.
Shortly after taking office, the Ruto government implemented in September 2022 strong austerity measures by cancelling flour and fuel subsidies. In July 2023, it implemented a 1.5 per cent housing tax and doubled fuel VAT from 8 per cent to 16 per cent, resulting in a 212.36 shillings (USD 1.6) per litre price of super petrol by the end of 2023. Against this background, in July 2023, huge mobilisations developed against the cost-of-living increase. The government’s policy was to repress brutally, hundreds were arrested and dozens of people were killed, and they went unpunished (2). Things have not changed. Ruto continues his policy and is back on the charge to adjust the people and pay the IMF. Meanwhile, anger grows at the impunity of big businessmen who evade taxes and receive tremendous tax benefits from the government.
William Ruto: lapdog of imperialism and the IMF
The government is reaching into the pockets of the impoverished workers to pay the interest in the foreign debt, asking for more foreign debt. While increasing the prices of necessities, Kenya cleared $560 million (72 billion shillings) of the 2014 Eurobond, using part of the proceeds of a $1.2 billion World Bank loan they had received at the end of May (3). This vicious, looting cycle, far from solving the problem, makes it even worse. On 3 June, columnist Macharia Gaitho criticised the National Treasury and the Central Bank for blindly following the Bretton Woods institutions’ demands in the Finance Bill.
People’s revolt against the tax
As all this policy was not enough for them, on Thursday 25 June, the Parliament approved, with 195 votes in favour, 106 against and three null votes, the budget 2024/25. Its sole objective is to raise an additional 2.7 billion dollars and thus pay off the remaining foreign debt maturities of 3.5 billion dollars, 68 per cent of Kenya’s GDP.
The bill sought a 5 per cent increase in fees on bank transfers and mobile phone payments, a 16 per cent increase in the tax on bread and 25 per cent on vegetable oil, a 2.75 per cent surcharge for wage earners enrolled in the national health insurance scheme, and a 2.5 per cent annual tax on vehicles. With the mobilisations growing, on Tuesday the 18th the government withdrew some items, such as bread or bank transactions, from the draft budget. But it was too late. The mobilisations in Nairobi continued and reached the parliament on the day of its approval, reflecting the anger and radicalism of the youth against government and big capitalist responsibility for the crisis.
A big mobilisation arrived near the parliament, surrounded by police. “We will use other ways to come to the parliament and occupy it. “Don’t modify, reject! “Ruto must go!” insisted the mobilised youth, demanding the deputies to reject the bill. The thousands of young people faced repression from the police, and overwhelmed them. Some demonstrators entered the parliament, giving free rein to their anger and discontent, but they could not prevent the approval of the bill. The repression was brutal. Some organisations report that the police repression left 17 dead, 86 injured and 52 arrested.
President William Ruto defended the crackdown as a defense of democracy and ordered military intervention in Nairobi. We still have a chance in the struggle. The mobilisation must continue together with the trade union and political organisations of the poor people and the youth to prevent Ruto from proclaiming the law passed by the parliament. Workers can defeat the government and break the IMF’s agreements by ignoring the payments of the foreign debt. It is necessary to stop paying the foreign debt and demand increases in wages and pensions and concrete measures against the cost of living, such as the total elimination of VAT on the basic basket of goods and the guarantee of the necessary funds for work, health, and education for the working people.
Kenyan troops out of Haiti! No to imperialist intervention!
Ruto, while killing 17 demonstrators and militarising Nairobi, sent police troops to Haiti to carry out a new military intervention in the battered Caribbean country. The new military intervention follows the failure of Ariel Henry’s de facto government, which cannot control the gangsterisation of the country in the hands of armed criminals and mafiosi. The new Presidential Council formed by the bourgeois parties PHTK and Lavalas, after Henry’s departure, together with the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the UN and US and French imperialism will finance the troops sent by Kenya and other African countries to replicate, this time in Canada or Brazil, MINUSTAH. This policy does not seek to solve the problems of the island. They want to sustain the colonialist military intervention that will return control to the capitalists and thus take care of their profits and the plundering of the island in the service of imperialism and the multinationals. As we have been denouncing, together with the comrades of the Socialist Workers Movement of the Dominican Republic (4) and the MST-Rozo of Haiti, we reject the imperialist militarisation that the government of Joe Biden is pushing for in Haiti and we fraternally call on the fighters who are mobilising in Kenya to demand together the immediate withdrawal of all the police troops that the criminal president Ruto has sent to Haiti. Kenyan troops out of Haiti! US imperialism and the IMF out of Kenya! For the unity of the struggles of the peoples against the hunger and repression plans of imperialism and the governments!
Solidarity with the working people of Kenya! Let the capitalists pay for the crisis!
The International Workers’ Unity (IWU-FI) supports the working people of Kenya, who are legitimately confronting their government and the starvation policies of the IMF. We call to repudiate the repression and militarisation and demand justice for the murdered demonstrators and the immediate punishment of those materially and politically responsible. Long live the struggle of the Kenyan working people! Down with the budget of Ruto and the IMF! Stop the repression! Justice for the fallen and punishment for the guilty!
International Workers’ Unity – Fourth International (IWU-FI)
25 June 2024
1 – Kerosene use falls 39 per cent as high prices choke households – John Mutua – nation.africa.com – 24 June 2024
2 – Dozens reported killed during Kenya protests – Cara Anna, Evelyne Musambi, and Brian Inganga – AP’s Global Desk – 20 July 2023
3 – Kenya pays off 72 billion shillings Eurobond debt using World Bank cash – Charles Mwaniki – Nation.Africa.com – 24 June 2024
4 – See statement by MST-RD at https:// https://mst-rd.org/2024/06/17/no-a-las-tropas-africanas-y-del-caricom-en-haiti/
