The Kenyan president has dismissed almost his entire cabinet after weeks of protests led by young professionals against tax rises and state corruption.
In a surprise announcement on national television, William Ruto promised a leaner, broad-based government to address the country’s huge debt and high unemployment and to “slay the dragon of corruption”.
Dozens of people have been killed in a severe crackdown on the “Gen Z uprising” in which the parliament was stormed on June 25 after passing a finance bill that increased taxes. Ruto later rejected the bill and announced spending cuts, as calls mounted for him to stand down.
The sacking of most of his cabinet on Thursday was a further concession by the president, who was elected last year and will be hoping the move will be enough to resist rising demands for him to go.
In his television address, Ruto said that after “listening keenly to what the people of Kenya have said” and appraising the performance of his cabinet he had “decided to dismiss with immediate effect” his attorney-general and all of his ministers except his foreign minister. His deputy president, Rigathi Gachagua, will also remain in post.
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Boniface Mwangi, a protest leader, said Ruto’s move would not end the rebellion. “We will remain on the streets. Kenyans are angry and the youth are particularly hungry. We cannot have a president who kills kids. The anger and the momentum will be maintained,” he told an online gathering hosted by the Resistance Bureau.
Hanifa Adan, another prominent member of the protest movement, welcomed the decision. “THE PRESIDENT OF KENYA HAS DISSOLVED THE CABINET!!! THE POWER LIES WITH THE PEOPLE ALWAYS!!!!!” she wrote on Twitter/X.
What initially began as a backlash against a bill to raise taxes quickly morphed into calls for a total overhaul of a bloated and extravagant government, and demands for Ruto to stand down.
The businessman-turned-politician, who was elected on a promise to lift the fortunes of the poor he calls “the hustlers”, was caught off guard by the depth of public anger over the proposed tax rises, which followed an earlier round of increases last year.
He justified the increases as necessary to allow Kenya to repay its $80 billion public debt to lenders including the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and China. The public debt makes up about 70 per cent of Kenya’s gross domestic product, the highest in 20 years. He has attempted to blame the previous government of Uhuru Kenyatta for running up huge debts, although Ruto was deputy in that administration for almost a decade.
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Shortly before the protests began, Ruto had been fêted in Washington by President Biden as Kenya was designated an American security partner.
As well as scrapping the finance bill, he announced sharp cuts to government spending, including travel and the first lady’s staff and office. Ruto’s frequent high-profile trips abroad, as well as news that the deputy president’s office spent more than $70,000 on curtains, have infuriated ordinary citizens burdened with a cost of living crisis.
Ruto has sought to engage with some of the protesters from across Kenya’s traditional ethnic divides by hosting an event on Twitter/X. During the exchange, Ruto apologised for the “arrogance and show of opulence” by MPs and ministers from the ruling party, and promised action against police officers who had opened fire on unarmed demonstrators.
On Sunday, thousands gathered in a park repeating calls for his resignation at a memorial concert for those who had died in demonstrations and victims of extra-judicial killings.
