Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: The sound of live ammunition and tear guest canisters punctured
Speaker 2: the air in Kennya's capital, Nairobi this week, as peaceful
Speaker 2: protests turned bloody and a brutal crackdown left scores dead.
Speaker 2: The cause plans to push through a raft of unpopular
Speaker 2: tax hikes in a bid to generate billions of dollars
Speaker 2: in additional revenue for the cash strapped country. In unprecedented
Speaker 2: scenes on Tuesday, protesters stormed the Parliament building, battling police
Speaker 2: firing live rounds. Kenya's President William Rutto accused criminals of
Speaker 2: hijacking legitimate grievances.
Speaker 1: Today's events mark a critical Tanning point on how we
Speaker 1: respond to grieve threats to our national security.
Speaker 2: But after the violence led to the deaths of at
Speaker 2: least twenty three people, Ruto was forced into an about
Speaker 2: face just twenty four hours later, pulling his support for
Speaker 2: the contentious tax bill backed by the IMF, I concede I.
Speaker 1: Will not sign the twenty twenty four finance.
Speaker 2: On today's podcast, we'll discuss whether the Kenyan government is
Speaker 2: stuck in an unwinnable fight having to choose between the
Speaker 2: IMF and the streets. And as Ruto admits defeat on
Speaker 2: these measures, could there still be more reforms to come
Speaker 2: and will Kenya's economy be up for the challenge. I'm
Speaker 2: Jennifer's Abasaja and this is the Next Africa Podcast, bringing
Speaker 2: you one story each week from the continent, driving the
Speaker 2: future of global growth with the context only Bloomberg can provide.
Speaker 2: A lot has happened this week, and I'm delighted that
Speaker 2: Bloomberg's Belaganga, who is based in Nairobi, is able to
Speaker 2: join us and help guide us through what has really
Speaker 2: been a momentous week for this country. Bellat, thanks so
Speaker 2: much for being here. Let's start with the big vote
Speaker 2: and also of course Tuesday scenes and the protests that
Speaker 2: we saw. You've been following these very closely. Just describe
Speaker 2: the scenes for us.
Speaker 1: Tuesday was quite interesting, I think for the first time
Speaker 1: I don't think of I remember seeing protesters making their
Speaker 1: way into the parliament buildings and they took their protests
Speaker 1: inside Parliament, literally inside the where the legislators sit, where
Speaker 1: they make decisions, and they disrupted everything that the legislators
Speaker 1: were doing. They broke windows, some firewalls started in some
Speaker 1: points at Parliament. Within the Parliament compound, we had tear
Speaker 1: gas canisters being launched by the security officers there. And
Speaker 1: the most interesting thing is the protests against the finance bill,
Speaker 1: which proposes higher taxes, has been led by organized and
Speaker 1: led by gen zs. We're talking about people in the
Speaker 1: ages between the ages of twenty and thirty, young people,
Speaker 1: people who usually do not take an interest in politics.
Speaker 1: They just ignore it completely. They don't even vote. If
Speaker 1: you look at their voter participation in the last election,
Speaker 1: it was like in the thirty percent, they didn't show up.
Speaker 1: And for the first time it seems that they are
Speaker 1: showing up and speaking loudly and saying, look, we don't
Speaker 1: agree with this.
Speaker 2: Why now Bella We describe, of course over the taxes
Speaker 2: that the president is trying to implement, But why is
Speaker 2: it that young people now are so engaged and so enraged.
Speaker 1: If you look at the unemployment rate in Changite over
Speaker 1: fifty percent, so we have people graduating from universities and
Speaker 1: they don't have jobs, they don't have opportunities to work.
Speaker 1: If you look at the gen zs, many of them
Speaker 1: are in the gig economy. So they do work online
Speaker 1: like call centers used to be our thing when I
Speaker 1: was around that age a couple of years back, but
Speaker 1: now they are doing in the gig economy. And so
Speaker 1: now when the government wants to introduce taxes online, which
Speaker 1: is a platform that young people have used to create
Speaker 1: empliment for themselves, it tooks emotions, right, Bella.
Speaker 2: I wonder if someone who is born and raised in Kenya,
Speaker 2: I imagine you have people that you know who have
Speaker 2: potentially been participating. I mean, what have the scenes this
Speaker 2: week been like for you to watch? And even the
Speaker 2: messages that we're hearing from the young people.
Speaker 1: I think I have to say it's been very interesting
Speaker 1: because many of the protests were organized on social media,
Speaker 1: so on Twitter, Instagram, all these platforms social media. I've
Speaker 1: not seen that before because many of them were organized
Speaker 1: by and led by the opposition politicians. They time around
Speaker 1: young people, we actually making videos and telling the older
Speaker 1: political folk that look, don't show up, thank you for
Speaker 1: everything you've done, but we got this now. And when
Speaker 1: you see them in the streets, they would show up singing,
Speaker 1: chanting songs, dancing. I remember last week there's a day
Speaker 1: they participated.
Speaker 2: They were in running.
Speaker 1: Battles the whole day with security forces, singing, chanting, dancing,
Speaker 1: talking to the security forces. We've seen people get shot,
Speaker 1: people have died from brutal police force cracking down on
Speaker 1: these young people, many of who are not armed, and
Speaker 1: they just they're on another level. I saw a clip
Speaker 1: on social media and one of the protesters was hit
Speaker 1: by tear gas or it was affected by tear gas,
Speaker 1: and they walked up to the and also obviously and
Speaker 1: it's so paramilitary and ask excuse.
Speaker 2: Me, what are you doing? Why are you hitting me?
Speaker 1: Like they want to sit there, have a conversation, Let's
Speaker 1: talk about what you're doing. So that's something that's never
Speaker 1: been seen before, because in the past, I remember my parents'
Speaker 1: generation would see security forces and immediately run for their lives.
Speaker 1: This generation, they want to have a conversation and ask
Speaker 1: you and question the security forces why are you doing
Speaker 1: Some of them I saw some clips of some of
Speaker 1: them saying we're doing this for you.
Speaker 2: When we come back, we'll look at how Ruto reacted
Speaker 2: and what happens next. Welcome back. So we just heard
Speaker 2: Bella describing the scenes on Tuesday, but what happened Wednesday
Speaker 2: was almost just as dramatic as what we saw from
Speaker 2: the previous day. Let's just start with the messaging that
Speaker 2: we heard from the President Bella. Take us to Tuesday
Speaker 2: evening then, because the President then went on TV to
Speaker 2: address the public. What was his messaging at that point.
Speaker 1: So what it did is he labeled the Tuesday protests
Speaker 1: as treason ERUs and said they were carried out by criminals.
Speaker 1: And then he deployed the military in attempts to stop
Speaker 1: the nationwide anti government protests on Tuesday. And this has
Speaker 1: been questioned by the Los Society of king which is
Speaker 1: an association made up of professionals in the legal space,
Speaker 1: went to the High Court saying that look, the military
Speaker 1: can't be deployed without the approval of Parliament. And by
Speaker 1: that time, seventeen people had died from the demonstrations because
Speaker 1: of police firing life ammunition at the demonstrators.
Speaker 2: Which made the next part of the story Bella that
Speaker 2: much more interesting questionable. I don't really know how to
Speaker 2: describe it. We saw a complete about face from the President.
Speaker 2: What did he say?
Speaker 1: So, he said he's withdrawing the tax bill, the finance bill,
Speaker 1: So he withdrew support for the finance bill. That had
Speaker 1: contentious tax proposals and then he called on lawmakers to
Speaker 1: scrap it. How do you reflected on the continuing conversation
Speaker 1: around the content of the Finance Bill twenty twenty four
Speaker 1: and listening truly to the people of Trainer who have
Speaker 1: said loudly that they will nothing to do with this
Speaker 1: Finance Bill twenty twenty four. But Article one fifteen of
Speaker 1: the Constitution does not allow him to essentially delete a bill.
Speaker 1: All he can do is set it back to Parliament
Speaker 1: with recommendations.
Speaker 2: What was the reaction when he made these comments on Wednesday?
Speaker 2: Is it enough do you think to calm the situation down?
Speaker 2: Or are the young people or are there still more
Speaker 2: protests that are expected so.
Speaker 1: The young people are not buying it. There are protests
Speaker 1: today in parts of the country and they're calling for
Speaker 1: him to step down. They're also sharing notes on social media.
Speaker 1: They had Twitter spaces yesterday with about one hundred thousand
Speaker 1: listeners and they want him to step down because they
Speaker 1: don't agree with whatever he proposed on Tuesday.
Speaker 2: What does this all mean for the President Bella because
Speaker 2: this is he's only a few years into his term,
Speaker 2: right and he's really being dealt quite a blow that
Speaker 2: he probably couldn't have anticipated. And now it's really ballooned
Speaker 2: to a place where everyone is paying attention to what
Speaker 2: his next move is and what is going to happen
Speaker 2: with the economy moving forward.
Speaker 1: It remains to be seen because there's never been such
Speaker 1: kind of opposition, especially from the young voters, from the
Speaker 1: young generation. These are people who grew up watching their
Speaker 1: parents go through the promulgation of the new constitution. These
Speaker 1: are people who grew up watching elections, presidential elections being contested,
Speaker 1: some of them won, and then now they want to
Speaker 1: have a different kind of political conversation, which changes the
Speaker 1: whole political scenery in Kenya. So it's not yet care
Speaker 1: what's going to happen is every day he just gets surprised, Oh,
Speaker 1: he's deployed the military.
Speaker 2: Can you do that? Okay?
Speaker 1: And then next he's withdrawn a bill. Okay, what does
Speaker 1: that mean? So we're finding out every day like everything
Speaker 1: new is just coming up. But the gen zs they're
Speaker 1: not impressed, they're not backing down. They're still out on
Speaker 1: the streets demonstrating.
Speaker 2: Does Rutel survive this politically? You know, does he get
Speaker 2: through this? Is it too early to tell what do
Speaker 2: you think?
Speaker 1: It remains to be seen. Look, he's on his first term,
Speaker 1: he's done two years out of five years in his
Speaker 1: first term. The gen zs are already preparing to register
Speaker 1: as voters. Remember the last election they did not participate,
Speaker 1: daid Away and God their argument was what has changed?
Speaker 2: What is new?
Speaker 1: But this time they're talking about you will see us
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty seven, which is when he writes for
Speaker 1: his second term. So it will be interesting to see
Speaker 1: how twenty twenty seven will pan out. Because these are
Speaker 1: people who are over eighteen, which means they are adults,
Speaker 1: which means they can now vote. So that changes a
Speaker 1: whole dynamic.
Speaker 2: And thanks so much to Bella Ganga for all of
Speaker 2: our reporting. You can keep up to date with all
Speaker 2: of the teams coverage from across the region on Bloomberg News.
Speaker 2: As we've been discussing, the scenes this week have all
Speaker 2: the makings of a twenty first century protest, but they
Speaker 2: also clearly represent a shift for the president's own political future.
Speaker 2: How he navigates it will have implications not just for him,
Speaker 2: but also for many of the other countries watching the
Speaker 2: scenes in Kenya, but also potentially also struggling to make
Speaker 2: their own tough decisions. This program was produced by Adrian Bradley.
Speaker 2: If you like the podcast, don't forget to comment and
Speaker 2: subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts, I'm Jennifer's Abasaja.
Speaker 2: Thanks as always for listening