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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.

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Speaker 2: The sound of live ammunition and tear guest canisters punctured

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Speaker 2: the air in Kennya's capital, Nairobi this week, as peaceful

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Speaker 2: protests turned bloody and a brutal crackdown left scores dead.

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Speaker 2: The cause plans to push through a raft of unpopular

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Speaker 2: tax hikes in a bid to generate billions of dollars

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Speaker 2: in additional revenue for the cash strapped country. In unprecedented

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Speaker 2: scenes on Tuesday, protesters stormed the Parliament building, battling police

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Speaker 2: firing live rounds. Kenya's President William Rutto accused criminals of

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Speaker 2: hijacking legitimate grievances.

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Speaker 1: Today's events mark a critical Tanning point on how we

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Speaker 1: respond to grieve threats to our national security.

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Speaker 2: But after the violence led to the deaths of at

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Speaker 2: least twenty three people, Ruto was forced into an about

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Speaker 2: face just twenty four hours later, pulling his support for

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Speaker 2: the contentious tax bill backed by the IMF, I concede I.

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Speaker 1: Will not sign the twenty twenty four finance.

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Speaker 2: On today's podcast, we'll discuss whether the Kenyan government is

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Speaker 2: stuck in an unwinnable fight having to choose between the

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Speaker 2: IMF and the streets. And as Ruto admits defeat on

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Speaker 2: these measures, could there still be more reforms to come

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Speaker 2: and will Kenya's economy be up for the challenge. I'm

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Speaker 2: Jennifer's Abasaja and this is the Next Africa Podcast, bringing

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Speaker 2: you one story each week from the continent, driving the

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Speaker 2: future of global growth with the context only Bloomberg can provide.

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Speaker 2: A lot has happened this week, and I'm delighted that

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Speaker 2: Bloomberg's Belaganga, who is based in Nairobi, is able to

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Speaker 2: join us and help guide us through what has really

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Speaker 2: been a momentous week for this country. Bellat, thanks so

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Speaker 2: much for being here. Let's start with the big vote

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Speaker 2: and also of course Tuesday scenes and the protests that

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Speaker 2: we saw. You've been following these very closely. Just describe

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Speaker 2: the scenes for us.

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Speaker 1: Tuesday was quite interesting, I think for the first time

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Speaker 1: I don't think of I remember seeing protesters making their

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Speaker 1: way into the parliament buildings and they took their protests

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Speaker 1: inside Parliament, literally inside the where the legislators sit, where

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Speaker 1: they make decisions, and they disrupted everything that the legislators

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Speaker 1: were doing. They broke windows, some firewalls started in some

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Speaker 1: points at Parliament. Within the Parliament compound, we had tear

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Speaker 1: gas canisters being launched by the security officers there. And

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Speaker 1: the most interesting thing is the protests against the finance bill,

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Speaker 1: which proposes higher taxes, has been led by organized and

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Speaker 1: led by gen zs. We're talking about people in the

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Speaker 1: ages between the ages of twenty and thirty, young people,

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Speaker 1: people who usually do not take an interest in politics.

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Speaker 1: They just ignore it completely. They don't even vote. If

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Speaker 1: you look at their voter participation in the last election,

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Speaker 1: it was like in the thirty percent, they didn't show up.

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Speaker 1: And for the first time it seems that they are

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Speaker 1: showing up and speaking loudly and saying, look, we don't

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Speaker 1: agree with this.

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Speaker 2: Why now Bella We describe, of course over the taxes

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Speaker 2: that the president is trying to implement, But why is

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Speaker 2: it that young people now are so engaged and so enraged.

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Speaker 1: If you look at the unemployment rate in Changite over

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Speaker 1: fifty percent, so we have people graduating from universities and

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Speaker 1: they don't have jobs, they don't have opportunities to work.

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Speaker 1: If you look at the gen zs, many of them

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Speaker 1: are in the gig economy. So they do work online

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Speaker 1: like call centers used to be our thing when I

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Speaker 1: was around that age a couple of years back, but

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Speaker 1: now they are doing in the gig economy. And so

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Speaker 1: now when the government wants to introduce taxes online, which

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Speaker 1: is a platform that young people have used to create

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Speaker 1: empliment for themselves, it tooks emotions, right, Bella.

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Speaker 2: I wonder if someone who is born and raised in Kenya,

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Speaker 2: I imagine you have people that you know who have

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Speaker 2: potentially been participating. I mean, what have the scenes this

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Speaker 2: week been like for you to watch? And even the

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Speaker 2: messages that we're hearing from the young people.

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Speaker 1: I think I have to say it's been very interesting

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Speaker 1: because many of the protests were organized on social media,

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Speaker 1: so on Twitter, Instagram, all these platforms social media. I've

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Speaker 1: not seen that before because many of them were organized

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Speaker 1: by and led by the opposition politicians. They time around

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Speaker 1: young people, we actually making videos and telling the older

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Speaker 1: political folk that look, don't show up, thank you for

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Speaker 1: everything you've done, but we got this now. And when

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Speaker 1: you see them in the streets, they would show up singing,

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Speaker 1: chanting songs, dancing. I remember last week there's a day

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Speaker 1: they participated.

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Speaker 2: They were in running.

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Speaker 1: Battles the whole day with security forces, singing, chanting, dancing,

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Speaker 1: talking to the security forces. We've seen people get shot,

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Speaker 1: people have died from brutal police force cracking down on

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Speaker 1: these young people, many of who are not armed, and

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Speaker 1: they just they're on another level. I saw a clip

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Speaker 1: on social media and one of the protesters was hit

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Speaker 1: by tear gas or it was affected by tear gas,

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Speaker 1: and they walked up to the and also obviously and

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Speaker 1: it's so paramilitary and ask excuse.

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Speaker 2: Me, what are you doing? Why are you hitting me?

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Speaker 1: Like they want to sit there, have a conversation, Let's

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Speaker 1: talk about what you're doing. So that's something that's never

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Speaker 1: been seen before, because in the past, I remember my parents'

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Speaker 1: generation would see security forces and immediately run for their lives.

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Speaker 1: This generation, they want to have a conversation and ask

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Speaker 1: you and question the security forces why are you doing

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Speaker 1: Some of them I saw some clips of some of

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Speaker 1: them saying we're doing this for you.

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Speaker 2: When we come back, we'll look at how Ruto reacted

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Speaker 2: and what happens next. Welcome back. So we just heard

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Speaker 2: Bella describing the scenes on Tuesday, but what happened Wednesday

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Speaker 2: was almost just as dramatic as what we saw from

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Speaker 2: the previous day. Let's just start with the messaging that

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Speaker 2: we heard from the President Bella. Take us to Tuesday

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Speaker 2: evening then, because the President then went on TV to

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Speaker 2: address the public. What was his messaging at that point.

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Speaker 1: So what it did is he labeled the Tuesday protests

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Speaker 1: as treason ERUs and said they were carried out by criminals.

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Speaker 1: And then he deployed the military in attempts to stop

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Speaker 1: the nationwide anti government protests on Tuesday. And this has

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Speaker 1: been questioned by the Los Society of king which is

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Speaker 1: an association made up of professionals in the legal space,

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Speaker 1: went to the High Court saying that look, the military

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Speaker 1: can't be deployed without the approval of Parliament. And by

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Speaker 1: that time, seventeen people had died from the demonstrations because

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Speaker 1: of police firing life ammunition at the demonstrators.

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Speaker 2: Which made the next part of the story Bella that

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Speaker 2: much more interesting questionable. I don't really know how to

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Speaker 2: describe it. We saw a complete about face from the President.

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Speaker 2: What did he say?

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Speaker 1: So, he said he's withdrawing the tax bill, the finance bill,

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Speaker 1: So he withdrew support for the finance bill. That had

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Speaker 1: contentious tax proposals and then he called on lawmakers to

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Speaker 1: scrap it. How do you reflected on the continuing conversation

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Speaker 1: around the content of the Finance Bill twenty twenty four

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Speaker 1: and listening truly to the people of Trainer who have

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Speaker 1: said loudly that they will nothing to do with this

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Speaker 1: Finance Bill twenty twenty four. But Article one fifteen of

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Speaker 1: the Constitution does not allow him to essentially delete a bill.

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Speaker 1: All he can do is set it back to Parliament

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Speaker 1: with recommendations.

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Speaker 2: What was the reaction when he made these comments on Wednesday?

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Speaker 2: Is it enough do you think to calm the situation down?

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Speaker 2: Or are the young people or are there still more

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Speaker 2: protests that are expected so.

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Speaker 1: The young people are not buying it. There are protests

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Speaker 1: today in parts of the country and they're calling for

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Speaker 1: him to step down. They're also sharing notes on social media.

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Speaker 1: They had Twitter spaces yesterday with about one hundred thousand

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Speaker 1: listeners and they want him to step down because they

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Speaker 1: don't agree with whatever he proposed on Tuesday.

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Speaker 2: What does this all mean for the President Bella because

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Speaker 2: this is he's only a few years into his term,

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Speaker 2: right and he's really being dealt quite a blow that

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Speaker 2: he probably couldn't have anticipated. And now it's really ballooned

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Speaker 2: to a place where everyone is paying attention to what

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Speaker 2: his next move is and what is going to happen

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Speaker 2: with the economy moving forward.

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Speaker 1: It remains to be seen because there's never been such

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Speaker 1: kind of opposition, especially from the young voters, from the

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Speaker 1: young generation. These are people who grew up watching their

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Speaker 1: parents go through the promulgation of the new constitution. These

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Speaker 1: are people who grew up watching elections, presidential elections being contested,

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Speaker 1: some of them won, and then now they want to

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Speaker 1: have a different kind of political conversation, which changes the

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Speaker 1: whole political scenery in Kenya. So it's not yet care

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Speaker 1: what's going to happen is every day he just gets surprised, Oh,

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Speaker 1: he's deployed the military.

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Speaker 2: Can you do that? Okay?

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Speaker 1: And then next he's withdrawn a bill. Okay, what does

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Speaker 1: that mean? So we're finding out every day like everything

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Speaker 1: new is just coming up. But the gen zs they're

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Speaker 1: not impressed, they're not backing down. They're still out on

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Speaker 1: the streets demonstrating.

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Speaker 2: Does Rutel survive this politically? You know, does he get

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Speaker 2: through this? Is it too early to tell what do

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Speaker 2: you think?

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Speaker 1: It remains to be seen. Look, he's on his first term,

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Speaker 1: he's done two years out of five years in his

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Speaker 1: first term. The gen zs are already preparing to register

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Speaker 1: as voters. Remember the last election they did not participate,

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Speaker 1: daid Away and God their argument was what has changed?

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Speaker 2: What is new?

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Speaker 1: But this time they're talking about you will see us

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Speaker 1: in twenty twenty seven, which is when he writes for

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Speaker 1: his second term. So it will be interesting to see

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Speaker 1: how twenty twenty seven will pan out. Because these are

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Speaker 1: people who are over eighteen, which means they are adults,

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Speaker 1: which means they can now vote. So that changes a

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Speaker 1: whole dynamic.

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Speaker 2: And thanks so much to Bella Ganga for all of

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Speaker 2: our reporting. You can keep up to date with all

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Speaker 2: of the teams coverage from across the region on Bloomberg News.

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Speaker 2: As we've been discussing, the scenes this week have all

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Speaker 2: the makings of a twenty first century protest, but they

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Speaker 2: also clearly represent a shift for the president's own political future.

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Speaker 2: How he navigates it will have implications not just for him,

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Speaker 2: but also for many of the other countries watching the

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Speaker 2: scenes in Kenya, but also potentially also struggling to make

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Speaker 2: their own tough decisions. This program was produced by Adrian Bradley.

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Speaker 2: If you like the podcast, don't forget to comment and

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Speaker 2: subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts, I'm Jennifer's Abasaja.

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Speaker 2: Thanks as always for listening