🌍 Blood, Taxes and Tears

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— Chibuike Uzor, Tayo Davies

Blood, Taxes, and Tears

CBS Media/ Nairobi

For once, young Africans aren’t playing defense.

This past week has been marred by the sights of young Kenyans on the streets of Nairobi. Why? In June, the Kenyan president decided to sign into law a bill that would increase taxes on everyday consumables like bread, vegetable oil, sugar, etc. This, in a bid to raise $2.3 billion to cover the country’s foreign debt over the next year.

Now because there is no such(and there shouldn’t be)thing as luxury bread, over 5 million Kenyans took to protest the bill peacefully. However, where you find sweat and tears, blood is never too far out, which meant the protests soon turned deadly, with a death toll of 13 so far and many more injured.

Tales of the same feathers?

Bloody protests are not uncommon on African soil, with similar uprisings in recent years costing lives and property.

  1. In 2020, over 103 peaceful Nigerian protesters were shot dead following the shooting of live rounds from the Nigerian armed forces.

  2. 128 people were reported to have died during the civilian opposition to then Chadian President Mahamat Itno’s attempt to extend his time in office.

    None, however, has been more fatal than the Tigray conflict in Ethiopia, which claimed over 400,000 lives in 2023 alone.

    Now what?

    The Kenyan President, William Ruto, has since called for protests to stop as on Tuesday, he officially declined to sign and withdrew the finance bill. Skeptics, however, believe this might just be a ploy given that a president can only decline to sign but not withdraw a bill already signed by parliament. Should no further actions be taken by parliament within the next two weeks, the bill would automatically become law. -CU