KARAPATAN assails the repression unleashed in Kenya by the government of Pres. William Ruto, after massive protests erupted against the US-International Monetary Fund backed Finance Act that calls for tax hikes on motor vehicles, vegetable oil, maize, sugar and mobile money transfers and a 16% value-added tax on bread. The controversial finance bill has recently been struck down as unconstitutional by the Kenyan Supreme Court, but the Ruto government has nonetheless imposed the said tax hikes.
Protests began to erupt in June 2024 against the finance bill that callously sought to squeeze more from the Kenyan people already reeling from high inflation rates. On June 23, security forces gunned down at least five unarmed protesters, sparking a furious nationwide protest that is now on its fifth week.
The Ruso government, considered a major ally by the US, has mounted a massive crackdown, abducting, torturing, threatening and interrogating activists, many of whom have been forced to go into hiding. Some of those abducted remain missing, including a known human rights defender. At least two dozen protesters have been killed, scores injured and more than 600 arrested. Paramedics assisting wounded protesters have also been attacked by the Kenyan police.
KARAPATAN joins other freedom-loving Filipinos in expressing solidarity with the Kenyan people beleaguered by these fascist attacks. The Kenyan people’s staunch opposition to the crippling economic policies imposed by the US and the IMF resonates with the Filipino people’s own struggle against the onerous neoliberal economic policies that have impoverished our country for decades.