KENYA: Kenya’s Head of State Withdraws Finance Bill 2024, Concedes to Public Pressure
Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA
After the nationwide protests against Kenya’s Finance Bill 2024 that have had far-reaching implications for the country, President William Samoei Ruto bowed to pressure and said he has conceded and would not sign the tax bill.
“Listening keenly to the people of Kenya who have said loudly that they want nothing to do with this Finance Bill 2024, I concede and therefore I will not sign the 2024 Finance Bill and it shall subsequently be withdrawn,” President Ruto said while addressing on Wednesday, June 26.
The President’s moves come after several people including the youths (Generation-Z) who were the driving force of the protest as well as other citizens, including the Catholic Bishops have decried the hiked tax bill.
In the collective statement for members of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB) read on Tuesday, June 25, when the protests turned violent, the bishops noted that the President can bring peace to the country by not assenting to the controversial bill.
“We believe the President has the means and the will to bring back sanity to our Nation, by not signing the Finance Bill into law for better participation, taking into account the voices of many Kenyans,” the Church leaders read out the statement and expounded, “Our dear young people, our country belongs to all of us. Your lives are important to us. We plead with you to remain peaceful.”
In his decision not to sign the anti-tax bill, the president suggested having a conversation with the young people saying, “I will be proposing an engagement with the young people of our nation, our sons and daughters, for us to listen to them…and agree with them on their priority areas of concern.”
He further proposed that a multi-sectoral, multi-stakeholder engagement be held to chart the way forward on matters relating to the content of the bill and on the “need for austerity measures and strengthening our fight against corruption.”
Most Kenyans supported the protest against the Finance Bill 2024 with some of President Ruto’s allies in support of the Bill.
