Turmoil in Kenya, East Africa

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Neo-colonialism in Africa

US prints trillions of dollars, while IMF tells Kenya to raise taxes.

The new finance bill imposes, for example, 16% sales tax on bread & 25% sales tax on cooking oil.

And climate change lunacy demands Kenyans to pay more taxes on sanitary pads, smartphones, and even healthcare.
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Riots broke out in Kenya, which was declared a US ally the day before

Protesters against tax hikes destroyed the country's parliament in the capital Nairobi. At least 10 dead and over 50 wounded are known.

The police use rubber bullets and tear gas against the protesters, and Molotov cocktails are thrown at them in response. Nairobi City Hall is on fire.

People are demanding the president's resignation after the government's initiative to raise taxes.

Just the day before, US President Joe Biden declared Kenya a major American ally outside NATO. Several countries in the world have this status, and Kenya is the only one in Africa.

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Protesters have overpowered anti-riot police and entered Parliament buildings and set a section of it on fire.

The surging crowds are opposed to the passage of the Finance Bill, 2024 which MPs passed on Tuesday with 195 votes against 106 who opposed.

The protesters uprooted the national flag within Parliament precincts with reports indicating that a number of the protesters have been shot outside Parliament.

A stampede have also been reported inside Parliament as MPs scampered to safety.

Read more on http://the-star.co.ke

#starkenyanews

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From Gen Z saying ‘No!’ to new taxes in Kenya to ladies praising a king in Nigeria, here’s our weekly photo dump:

Nairobi, Kenya - Baton-wielding riot officers surround a protester as thousands of young people hit the streets nationwide to demand lawmakers scrap a controversial Finance Bill amid a worsening cost-of-living crisis.


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Riots in Kenya: Protesters have taken over the parliament building. The police are firing on them. There are fatalities.

Auma Obama, the half-sister of former US President Barack Obama, said she was affected by tear gas.

Just yesterday, the United States declared Kenya as its major non-NATO ally, and today, the Russian flag was raised in protests in the Kenyan capital.

The West has struggled in the past year to maintain its historical grip on the African continent.

#Kenya #Riots #Protests #AumaObama #US #Russia #Africa

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KENYANS RIOT OVER UNITED STATES/KENYA IMF DEAL!

Legislators voted to pass a controversial bill that would see tax hike.

Most Keyans demanded that legislators forgo the bill, which they didn't, causing mass demonstrations.

There are reports that peaceful protesters were being executed in the streets.

Addressing President William Ruto, the commission wrote on X: “The world is watching your descent into tyranny!
Your regime’s actions is an assault on democracy. All those involved in the shooting – actively or passively – must be held to account.”

Some lawmakers fled the chamber as protesters, breached the parliament complex. Parts of the parliament building were set ablaze. Police opened fire after earlier firing tear gas canisters and water cannon at demonstrators.

President Obama's half-sister was also dosed with tear gas as she was part of the protest


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https://www.uncaptured.media/p/kenyas-police-death-squads-will-soon

Kenya’s Police “Death Squads” Will Soon Arrive in Haiti, if Washington Gets its Way
With U.S. Green Berets in the background, Kenya's special forces – notorious for grisly massacres – could soon be terrorizing Haiti

As Babu Owino landed at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, he called his wife to tell her he had arrived and would be home soon. However, the Kenyan parliamentarian that represents Embakasi East was soon handcuffed, blindfolded, thrown into a waiting vehicle, and taken to an unknown location by police. They held him incommunicado for three days, deprived of food and water, before presenting him to a judge after a habeas corpus application was made in court.

“I’m a messenger,” he declared. “You can kill the messenger, but you will never kill the message. If fighting for Kenyans will cost me my life, so be it. Since I was a student leader, I have been fighting for the interests of Kenyans, and I will continue fighting for them.”

Owino’s detention is just one example of the abuses Kenya’s police mete out, this one against an elected official no less.

But Owino was luckier than many Kenyans, walking away from the abduction with his life. Shadowy death squads with secretive ties to political figures have long operated within Kenya’s notoriously brutal police force and claimed thousands of victims.

Unless stopped by the Kenyan courts, parliament, or demonstrators, this terror will soon be exported to Haiti, where Nairobi will lead, with some 1,100 police special forces, a U.S.-organized invasion, which the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) blessed on Oct. 2, with Russia and China abstaining. The UN-deputized force, should it deploy, will be called the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission.

UNSC Resolution 2699’s authors in Washington and Kenyan government officials have promised to avoid repeating the “mistakes” of the 2004-2017 MINUSTAH occupation, in which massacres were carried out against the civilian population and hundreds of children were raped by foreign soldiers with total impunity. But Kenya’s long history of operating death squads against their own population and partaking in ill-fated interventions abroad portend a humanitarian disaster for the Haitian people if they are soon under the Kenyan boot.

Police death squads terrorize Kenyans

“The Kenyan police are one of the most backwards,” explains Booker Ngesa Omole, a Communist Party of Kenya (CPK) militant. Kenyan cops have killed three CPK members this year, including one who Omole says was executed in his home in front of his parents. “They are a typical neo-colonial force.”

In 2008, the Kenyan human rights group Oscar Foundation published a report called Veil of Impunity which found that over 8,000 young people were reported to have disappeared or been executed since 2002. The report also described reports of “mass graves scattered all over the country… where most of the missing are believed to have been secretly buried after execution in cold blood.”

Much of this carnage was carried out by the “Kwekwe (Eagle) Squad,” which was formed in 2007 to battle the Mungiki, a secretive nationalist organization that modeled itself on the Mau Mau, who led an anti-colonial struggle in the 1950s.

“Mungiki emerged in response to historical injustices and inequalities in Kenya,” Omole said. “It gained significant popularity, especially in relation to land-related issues. However, this movement rapidly deteriorated when it was co-opted by the Kikuyu ruling elites for their political purposes.”

“The Kenyan police also leveraged the group's existence to justify the extrajudicial killing of thousands of young, unemployed individuals on the mere suspicion of Mungiki membership,” Omole continued. “This period represented a grave example of mass extrajudicial executions.”

Disputes over the 2007 election erupted into violence, killing more than 1,000 and displacing 500,000, according to Human Rights Watch.

“This degenerated to a “police state” with the formation of the infamous Kwekwe squad,” the Oscar Foundation report states. “Following a series of beheadings, the government declared a shoot-to-kill order and ordered the police to conduct mass arrests of youths, some of whom were later found dead and dumped in Ngong forest.”

The Kwekwe squad’s role was “to suppress the youth,” the Oscar Foundation continues, and it was “notorious for its acts of staged abductions and executions of innocent youths which occur with impunity.”

A separate 2008 report from the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, entitled The Cry of Blood, compiled at least 300 names of victims who had either been killed or disappeared, and 200 others who they were unable to identify.

When human rights groups began to conduct ballistics examinations on suspects who had been executed, the police changed their murder methods to include strangulation, drowning, mutilation, and bludgeoning, according to the report, accusing the police of crimes against humanity.

A 2009 report by the UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston found that “death squads operating on the orders of senior police officials” killed ​1,113 people following elections in December 2007.

The Oscar Foundation’s founder, Oscar Kamau Kingara, and fellow human rights investigator John Paul Oulo were assassinated, in 2009, reportedly by police, after providing information to Alston for his report.

The same year, police officer Bernard Kiriinya was murdered after recording video testimony saying that he witnessed the Kwekwe Squad strangle and hack to death 58 people. Others were poisoned to avoid ballistic investigations by human rights organizations. The bodies, he said, were left in a national park, to be eaten by hyenas, and in a sewage plant.

“All the non-commissioned officers in our squad were given 15,000 shillings ($190) each and the constables were given 10,000 shillings each as a sign of appreciation for 'kazi mzuri'," Kiriinya said, using the Swahili term for “'good work.”

In 2020, Wikiealks published a letter from a Kenyan policeman alleging that former First Lady Lucy Kibaki and retired Police Commissioner Major General Mohammed Hussein Ali ordered the Kwekwe Squad to murder several prominent politicians. It also killed “1,869 Mungiki, and 631 suspected robbers.” At least a dozen of the officers who carried out the killings died or disappeared, the letter said.

A 2021 Nation Africa report called the Kwekwe Squad a “well-structured execution squad within the national police Service (NPS) charged with the elimination of crime suspects.”

Following the 2007 election violence, Kenya formed the Waki Commission to reform the police. In March 2009, police announced that the fearsome Kwekwe Squad was formally disbanded, and in May, President Mwai Kibaki created the National Task Force on Police Reform. The following year, Kenya passed a new constitution, promising accountability and reform.

However, little changed. A 2016 report found that Kenyan police shot dead more than 1,200 people in the previous five years.

Even the U.S. State Department’s Kenya 2018 Rights Report noted “unlawful and politically motivated killings; forced disappearances; torture; harsh and life-threatening prison condition” among other crimes, and accused the government of paying lip service to reforms. “Impunity at all levels of government continued to be a serious problem, despite public statements by the president and deputy president.”

In 2019, the Director of Criminal Investigations met with families of the victims and promised to investigate the death squads.Though he disbanded the police’s “Flying Squad,” the killer cops were merely reshuffled to other police units. “Sting Squad Headquarters” and another death squad called the “Directorate of Criminal Investigations Special Service Unit” (SSU) replaced it.

From SSU’s inception in 2019 until September 2022, Amnesty International Kenya documented 559 cases of extra-judicial killings and 53 cases of enforced disappearances, linking the squad to most of the cases.

In October 2022, the charade was repeated. The SSU was disbanded, with President William Ruto stating that “the police changed and became killers instead of protectors of ordinary Kenyans.” As before, the killer cops were not charged but once again reshuffled and assigned to different units.

Amnesty International Kenya was skeptical of Ruto’s announcement, stating that “many other ‘special units’ accused of serious violations, such as the Flying Squad and Kwekwe Squad, have previously been disbanded without necessarily ending the violations.” AI called on him to “extend this action across all security and policing agencies, including the Kenya Forest Service, Kenya Wildlife Service, the Kenya Defence Forces, and the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit.”

In July 2019, HRW submitted a report to the UN Human Rights Council stating that Kenyan police and pro-government militias killed 100 people during election protests and that police extrajudicially executed 21 men and boys in Nairobi’s poor neighborhoods. HRW published an accompanying statement saying that Kenya failed to meet its promises to the UN.

U.S. maintains strong support for Kenya

Despite this dismal human rights record, Washington heavily funds and trains the Kenyan police, dating back decades.

This support was surely increased in the Sep. 25 security deal with Kenya, which U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin flew to Nairobi to sign, although details of the accord have not been made public yet.

In sync with U.S. designs, Kenyan military forces have long participated in military interventions abroad, from Yugoslavia to Somalia.

Kenyan Deputy Inspector General Police Administration Service Noor Gabow, who was shepherded around Port-au-Prince by State Department personnel and U.S. military forces during an August reconnaissance mission, is a graduate of the British government’s police training program. He spent five years in UN Missions in Sierra Leone and Bosnia where Kenyan forces stole and sold $100,000 worth of fuel, and frequented a brothel, according to the Washington Post.

Gabow is also Acting Mission Management Coordinator at the UN Police Division. He currently leads a paramilitary wing of the Kenyan National Police Service.

It’s no coincidence that Kenya’s police force is not only the most brutal on the African continent, but also the largest recipient of U.S. support.

“Kenya is routinely among the largest recipients of U.S. foreign aid and is a top recipient of U.S. security assistance in Africa,” a 2020 Congressional Research Service document states. “Alongside State Department-managed military aid, the Department of Defense has provided over $400 million in [counter terrorism] ‘train and equip’ support to Kenya in the past decade.”

A Wall Street Journal article described the U.S. embassy’s influence over police and security forces in Kenya. “We, for the most part, have operational control,” said Supervisory Special Agent Ryan Williams of the State Department Bureau of Diplomatic Security.

This control is maintained through a reward system, which is highly lucrative for Kenyan police.

“Kenyan officers who win positions in vetted units get upgraded training, the prestige of working in an elite squad and, depending on the unit, as much as twice their usual pay. U.S. agencies provide intelligence they might not share with ordinary Kenyan police,” the WSJ article explains.

“The benefits of such collaborations and partnerships are immense” commented Inspector Mike Mugo, a spokesman for the Kenyan Directorate of Criminal Investigations.

In February 2020, the FBI and the Department of State trained 42 Kenyan police and intelligence officers.

Kenyan police and intelligence officers are attending 12 weeks of counterterrorism training at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, in preparation for a new Joint Terrorism Task Force in Nairobi. Source: FBI

When dusk-to-dawn curfews were imposed under the pretext of combatting COVID-19, zealous cops in riot gear tear-gassed and brutalized laborers awaiting a ferry to return home after work, two hours before the evening curfew started. Slums and informal markets under lockdown received similar abuses as workers begged for mercy.

Those caught violating the curfews were subject to brutality, no matter the reason. Police beat to death motorcycle taxi driver Hamisi Juma Mbega, who was taking a pregnant woman to the hospital after curfew. They killed three other motorcycle taxi drivers who were protesting the arrest of a colleague for not wearing a mask.

Thirteen-year-old Yasin Hussein Moyo was standing on his home balcony when he was shot dead by police on an after-curfew patrol. While police insisted Moyo was not targeted and was hit by a stray bullet, they killed at least 24 anti-lockdown protesters providing no such justification.

Two brothers, 22-year-old Benson Njiru Ndwiga and 19-year-old Emmanuel Mutura Ndigwa, disappeared in police custody during curfew and were found two days later in a morgue.

The rest of the article here,

https://www.uncaptured.media/p/kenyas-police-death-squads-will-soon

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🚨🛑🇰🇪- Kenya is bleeding 🩸.

Who would have thought? Who would have believed if they told you this man was going to do what he’s doing right now?

Who would have guessed it? Here we are, the so called “democratically” elected President is now kidnapping, and shooting down the youth who voted for him.

This is western democracy for you! Kenyans I stand with you! Get him out! #RutoIsAWesternPuppet #rutoandhisgoonsmustgo
#RutoMustGo

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[Denise/Dizi]

When will those supposedly representing the local populations on this planet realize that their "job" is to represent the whole, and NOT the money system, and abuses of power over the masses? Seems as soon as someone is elected or placed into a position in any government, they are taught to rebel against their own people...

Surely one could suggest they are trying to improve local situations, to introduce things that will integrate each environment into a working "Whole"... But the example they are following is debt slavery, abuses of power, and control over the masses, and downright hostile...

If such governments truly cared about those they claim to represent, the protests, the violence, the refusal to follow their orders are a clear sign that they are absolutely NOT representing those they are claiming to...

Surely each region on this plant has their ow sets of challenges, clean water, abuses of resources, poverty versus wealth, etc... But taking a model in which something works, and trying to fashion that into a region that is completely different than the first, can be catastrophic.

What a sad state of affsirs.

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23 dead, over 200 wounded by Kenyan police in protests triggered by IMF imposed austerity measures

Protesters now aim to topple Pres William Rufo, author of the stalled tax hikes

This all happened as Biden designated Kenya a "major non-NATO ally"

https://x.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1806936393626608125

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This all happened as Biden designated Kenya a "major non-NATO ally"

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- Africa has 54 countries in total, all of them members of the UN
- There are no African countries in NATO
- Two African countries - Egypt and South Africa are members of BRICS
- Nigeria has shown interest in becoming a member of BRICS
- Most African countries have been colonised by European countries, Kenya by the British
- Only Ethiopia, Liberia and South Sudan are independent

That 400 Kenyan police are in Haiti is very significant imo as it relates directly to the document posted and archived by Tintin last year, which entitles the troops from any country to "police" the civilians in another. This move, of course, removes any feelings of solidarity that the troops of one country may feel for their own.

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This all happened as Biden designated Kenya a "major non-NATO ally"

1806936393626608125

- Africa has 54 countries in total, all of them members of the UN
- There are no African countries in NATO
- Two African countries - Egypt and South Africa are members of BRICS
- Nigeria has shown interest in becoming a member of BRICS
- Most African countries have been colonised by European countries, Kenya by the British
- Only Ethiopia, Liberia and South Sudan are independent

That 400 Kenyan police are in Haiti is very significant imo as it relates directly to the document posted and archived by Tintin last year, which entitles the troops from any country to "police" the civilians in another. This move, of course, removes any feelings of solidarity that the troops of one country may feel for their own.

And how does this tie to the Kenyans protesting the IMF tax hike their government headed by Ruto was going to impose on them, and with the comment made here

https://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?123244-Turmoil-in-Kenya-East-Africa&p=1620234&viewfull=1#post1620234

by Max Blumenthal regarding the outcome of the protest and the number of wounded and beaten citizens by government police?

And also the fact that IMF tax hike came after president Biden designated Kenya a “major non NATO ally”??

Note: The video posted in the Max Blumenthal comment is about the police brutality that they used on their own people during the demonstrations so one can imagine that same brutality is likely being used in Haiti, but it will not tarnish the US image so to speak because it isn’t the US troops on Haiti soil.

The news about sending Kenyan police to Haiti has been posted on the Turmoil in Haiti thread by the way.

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This week, Kenya witnessed a historic moment as protestors stormed Parliament on Tuesday, demanding the rejection of the 2024 Finance Bill. Tragically, the demonstrations resulted in fatalities and injuries. As of Thursday the 27th, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (
@HakiKNCHR
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INDEBTED: Kenya's Journey to a Debt Crisis [Part 2: The Feeding Trough]

Kenya's economy is in serious trouble. The country's leadership has just pushed through Parliament a budget that is driven by the need to collect as much tax as possible. In fact, the government's target of Kshs 3.6 trillion in the 2023/2024 budget is Kshs 1.5 trillion more than the 2022/2023 budget. This speaks to the desperate situation that Kenya is in. But Kenya's debts don't come from thin air.

This series breaks it all down. It is a story of at least a decade of mismanagement of Kenya's loans, shocking corruption and debt dependency that has led the country to this point told by auditors, analysts and insiders.

Thank you for watching. If you love our content, become an Africa Uncensored patron today and support our work today. It will boost our resources and enhance our ability to dig up the truth: Patreon:

ZJamDaDTuGE

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Kenya to Take Measures to Reduce Expenditure Following Decline of Finance Bill 2024

Kenya's President William Ruto has issued instructions to reduce expenditure following the decline of the Finance Bill 2024, which was met with fierce protests in the country. The reduction will amount to roughly $2.7 billion, an official statement reads.
"Further, I have directed the National Treasury to immediately submit to Parliament amendments to the Division of Revenue Act 2024 to reflect the reduced revenues occasioned by the rejected Finance Bill," it says.

The institution was also instructed "to ensure that only critical and essential services are funded, using no more than 15% of the budget until the supplementary budget is approved."

The demonstrations against the tax increases proposed in the Finance Bill 2024 resulted in the deaths of at least 23 people and the injury of over 300 others in various regions of the country, the portal said.

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IMF Reportedly Urges Kenya to Implement New Taxes Despite Protests
The Kenyan government have implemented tax measures in response to the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) request to decrease the budget deficit from 5.7% to... 28.06.2024, Sputnik Africa

The IMF has advised Kenya to enforce additional levies, despite facing opposition from the people, local portal The Nation reported, citing a senior official at the fund.
It also appealed to the government of President William Ruto to maintain its dedication to the reforms outlined in its program, as it foresaw a potential revenue collection deficit.
Moreover, the fund reportedly foresaw the people’s outrage but still pushed the government to adopt a controversial reform.

Kenya secured a four-year loan agreement with the IMF in 2021 and committed to further financial support for climate initiatives in May 2023, increasing its total access to IMF loans to $3.6 billion. The IMF mandates regular reviews of implemented reforms, which, for Kenya, occur every six months, prior to releasing installments of the funding.
Kenya reached a staff-level agreement with the IMF earlier this month on the seventh review. The review theoretically clears the way for $976 million, but it has not yet secured decisive approval from the IMF Board.
Kenya's public debt amounted to 70.6% of its GDP at the end of last June, according to the National Treasury, which exceeds the recommended threshold of 55% known as the "tipping point" advocated by the IMF and the World Bank.

However, it is projected that government debt will remain at a "sustainable" level and that the debt-to-GDP ratio will decline, according to the recent budget statement.

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https://en.sputniknews.africa/20240704/kenyas-central-bank-expert-takes-lead-in-debt-management-office-1067366580.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Kenya's Central Bank Expert Takes Lead in Debt Management Office

Kenya has appointed central bank economist Raphael Owino as the new head of its debt management office, the finance ministry announced on Wednesday. Owino succeeds Haron Sirima, who announced his resignation in January.
The finance ministry praised Owino's expertise in public debt management, including maintaining sustainable debt levels, reducing long-term servicing costs, and managing contingent liabilities.

"Owino brings a wealth of knowledge and valuable experience from his previous role at the Central Bank of Kenya," the statement said. "We are confident that Mr. Owino’s expertise, experience, and insights will greatly benefit our organization as he steps into this critical role."

The public office also thanked the outgoing director general, Dr. Haron Sirima, for "his outstanding work at the National Treasury."

Earlier this year, Kenya's public finances came under scrutiny amid fears that the country would default on a $2 billion international bond.

In an effort to manage the debt, the finance ministry issued a new $1.5 billion bond in February to buy back most of the $2 billion bond, which was repaid last month.

In addition, violent protests erupted in the Kenyan capital and other parts of the country in mid-June over a proposed tax increase bill, which President William Ruto eventually withdrew. This action could complicate efforts to meet the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) requirement to reduce the budget deficit from 5.7% to 3.3% of GDP.
Although protests erupted across the country after parliament debated and passed a bill, the IMF reportedly insisted on the measures even after violence broke out.

The bill proposed a 16% value-added tax (VAT) on bread, sugar transportation, mobile and financial services, and foreign currency transactions. It also included a 2.5% excise tax on cars and vegetable oil. In response to the escalating protests, Ruto refused to sign the bill and sent it back to parliament for further review.

According to the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, 39 individuals lost their lives and 361 were injured over the course of two weeks of protests.

[Bill Ryan]

https://t.me/DDGeopolitics/116024
The President of Kenya has announced the dissolution of the government.

Kenyan President William Ruto announced on Thursday the dissolution of the government, dismissing almost his entire cabinet as part of measures undertaken following widespread anti-government protests that turned deadly.

He said the move, with immediate effect, affected all ministers except Prime Cabinet Secretary and Foreign Minister Musalia Mudavadi and Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.
~~~

DDGeopolitics/116024

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⚡️Kenyan President Dissolves Govt Following Weeks Of Unrest

Only the Deputy President and Prime Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs will remain, according to William Ruto's announcement. He said he took the decision taken after "reflection, listening to Kenyans, and holistic appraisal" of his cabinet.

Ruto has come under fire for trying to implement IMF-backed tax reform, which caused violent protests across the country that resulted in at least 39 deaths.

The proposed tax hike was repealed, but protests continued as people called for the President to resign. In an effort to quell the unrest, Ruto announced a number of cuts to govt spending - including reducing the number of govt advisors.

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