Kenyan President William Ruto fires cabinet to quell anti-corruption protesters

Just six weeks ago, Ruto traveled to Washington to meet President Biden, the first meeting with an African president since 2008. Security cooperation and free-market insurance policies had cemented its position as America’s closest ally in the rapidly expanding wind sector.

Ruto also received global praise for his environmental integrity and steadfast support for Western diplomatic priorities, including his recent deployment of Kenyan police to Haiti to provide relief for the gang-infested Caribbean population.

However, like other leaders across Africa, Ruto faces the anger of his own voters. The average date in Africa is eighteen, and date participants are becoming increasingly angry at government waste and corruption as they face unemployment and rising prices. In many countries, that rebellion has supported coups that overthrew longtime Western allies, or fueled revolutions that devolved into civil war or failed amid brutal crackdowns.

“Recent events… have brought us to a turning point,” Ruto said in a brief televised address announcing the dismissal of his attorney general and all ministers except the top Cabinet secretary and the foreign minister. “I will slay the dragon of corruption.”

Kenya’s protesters – who have forced many to resign from government posts – are pushing for an opportunity in which young, professional voters can more easily demand change. Their decision has also worried other African governments grappling with their own angst-ridden formative years – a Ghanaian legislator recently cited the Kenyan protests as a reason for passing responsible legislation. .

“It’s a step in the right direction that he fired his cabinet, because they were part of the bigger problem,” said Glad Olal, coordinator of a coalition of rights organizations based entirely in the settlements. He spent Thursday visiting injured protesters in hospitals. “But we are still insisting on police accountability. …It is not easy to negotiate without justice.”

Ruto has then attempted to be extra cordial, despite initially condemning the protesters as criminals. Parliament was then attacked and partially set on fire, they withdrew the finance bill and launched protests over tax hikes – prompting global rating agencies to downgrade debt-laden Kenya – and its Later the allocated lakhs of rupees were destroyed. Primary and secondary girls’ workplace.

Protests continued, so Ruto placed restrictions on the number of advisers attached to ministries, called for a nationwide discussion and opposed population fund harvesting, which was a way for politicians to influence the use of stolen money. It was not in abundance.

“This is a political earthquake. This is quite unprecedented – we have not seen such a dramatic decision in Kenya in at least two decades,” said Muriithi Mutiga, system director for Africa at the Global Catastrophe Team think tank. “It’s very encouraging.”

Since they began to end the era, the protests have changed the quality of day-to-day life in Nairobi.

“No! No! No! Ruto must go!” A protester yelled past, with fear in her eyes as an old woman with an iPhone watches a film of a small family walking past the firing of tear fuel canisters by police in central Nairobi Teams of plainclothes police, with handcuffs hanging from their belts, roamed the streets searching for masked protesters who were spray-painting slogans on boulevard signs.

Even close to the tax hike, protesters wondered how government officials allocated themselves lakhs of rupees for paraphernalia and flew in private planes.

All told, 46 families were killed and more than 400 injured, said the Detached Medico-Prison Unit, a coalition of professionals that conduct autopsies and monitor police violence. According to the gang, at least 44 houses were additionally seized, some beaten and thrown back onto the streets. The body of a young man was found in a mine.

Parliament was then set on fire, yet news organizations reported protests in 35 of Kenya’s 47 counties. Management organizers have repeatedly called for enthusiasm to turn a planned demonstration in the city on Sunday into a concert to reduce the risk of dissent. However, the MPs have had all their workplaces or companies set on fire, and social media is full of blackmail against them.

But the protests were largely disciplined, a far cry from the post-election violence that swept the country in 2007, when politicians instigated attacks on rival ethnic groups. Homes of impoverished Kenyans went up in flames, and more than 1,200 people died amid rampant ethnic cleansing and heavy-handed police crackdowns. Aversion to violence led to a new charter and the population chose not to become pawns of the powerful.

“At least we’re burning the right houses this time,” quipped bike taxi driver Frank Mugai, alluding to past protests, as he mentioned attacks on parliamentary offices with friends.

“These politicians joked with our parents for many years and told us to go to school and learn. Well, we have learned!” His worker Winston Kegodye contributed to this.

Mutiga of the disaster team noted how the President knew that the actions were not working and that additional drastic measures were needed.

“The President … has adjusted and understood that these protests cannot be crushed,” he said. “He has been rightly criticized for appointing a weak cabinet – this is an opportunity to put together a more capable team. Will he take advantage of the opportunity? Young people will be watching with curiosity.”

Among those watching was protest organizer and veteran activist Boniface Mwangi, whose long-running campaign against government corruption has included graffiti depicting politicians as vultures, pigs and hyenas across Nairobi. He has thrown buckets of blood over pigs in front of parliament to protest against a salary increase for Kenyan MPs, who are already the second highest paid legislators in the world.

He said, the protest will not stop. The protesters want the police to be shot dead, all officers to be held accountable for killing protesters, and an electoral board to be formed to recall specific MLAs and hold new elections.

“The anger is still there,” he said. “Ruto had the most incompetent cabinet in the history of this country – people who were accused of corruption, accused of rape, accused of murder. …But now Kenyans are speaking one language – the language of accountability. “Kenya will never be the same again.”