{"id":37612,"date":"2023-07-27T08:00:58","date_gmt":"2023-07-27T07:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/?p=35095"},"modified":"2023-09-28T18:16:59","modified_gmt":"2023-09-28T17:16:59","slug":"kenya-protests-cost-of-living-ruto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/global-politics\/africa\/kenya-protests-cost-of-living-ruto\/","title":{"rendered":"What&#8217;s behind Kenya&#8217;s protests?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"drop-cap-paragraph\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Later this year, on 12 December 2023, we Kenyans will mark 60 years since independence from the brutality of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/news\/2016\/aug\/18\/uncovering-truth-british-empire-caroline-elkins-mau-mau\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">British white supremacy and settler colonialism<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. It\u2019s a time to celebrate. But it\u2019s also a moment to pause. To reflect on the challenges we\u2019ve had, the betrayals we\u2019ve participated in and the skeletons in our closet.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Today <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2023\/7\/18\/kenya-braces-for-3-days-of-anti-govt-protest-all-the-details\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">maandamano<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (protests)<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> against a massive cost of living crisis are a weekly and bloody affair. The Kenyan police, already known for <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/africasacountry.com\/2023\/04\/defund-the-police\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">extrajudicial violence and corruption<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, have <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/nation.africa\/kenya\/news\/politics\/un-office-calls-for-probe-into-deaths-during-azimio-protests-4303786\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">killed scores<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of protestors. Whilst anger spills on the streets, many are not surprised at people\u2019s struggles and concerns. In the words of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.standardmedia.co.ke\/kenya-at-50\/article\/2000097642\/jm-kariuki-millionaire-who-stood-up-for-the-poor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">J.M Kariuki<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, who fought in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/features\/2016\/5\/5\/we-are-the-mau-mau-kenyans-share-stories-of-torture\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mau Mau liberation struggle<\/a>, how have we managed to produce fifty millionaires and fifty million beggars? Why can we not feed our population? Where is the land and freedom our <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">mashujaa <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(heroes) fought for?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This year, as a part of the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sjc.community\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Social Justice Movement<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.matharesocialjustice.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mathare Social Justice Centre<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/lis-isl.org\/en\/2021\/10\/24\/kenia-manifesto-de-la-liga-socialista-revolucionaria\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Revolutionary Socialist League,<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/ukombozilibrary.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ukombozi Library<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> among other allied organisations, we have been working to renew the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theelephant.info\/reflections\/2022\/05\/06\/kenyas-social-justice-movement-remembering-our-unsung-heroes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pledge of our freedom fighters<\/a>\u2014for land, food, and freedom\u2014in our grassroots campaigns, including via <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/aaprp-intl.org\/event\/african-liberation-day-nairobi-kenya\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">African Liberation Day<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, \u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/f1ssKGbEcnk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Saba Saba<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (7 July) commemorations, and (Dedan) Kimathi Day.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kimathi, leader of Mau Mau, was executed in 1957, six years before independence was finally achieved. The British hid his remains and burial site; they never wanted him becoming a symbol of resistance or a site for would-be resurgent organising.&nbsp; Yet today Kimathi\u2019s struggle remains <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theelephant.info\/features\/2023\/06\/30\/death-of-a-hero-and-the-coronation-of-a-parasite\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">painfully relevant<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2014a struggle we want to ensure people remember as they take to the streets.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Cost of living crisis under Ruto<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Today the majority of Kenyans face an unprecedented cost of living crisis, shrinking civic space, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/africasacountry.com\/2022\/03\/nairobis-incendiary-displacements\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">continued evictions<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and landlessness. Increasing numbers of people live <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/nation.africa\/kenya\/news\/more-kenyans-sink-into-poverty-in-latest-report-by-kenya-national-bureau-of-statistics-4277704\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">under the poverty line.<\/span><\/a> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Vast tracts of land are owned by an <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/brill.com\/view\/journals\/ajls\/9\/2\/article-p79_1.xml?language=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">elite ruling class<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">; the rest are squeezed onto small parcels of land or live as squatters\u2014including our <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/nation.africa\/kenya\/counties\/war-veterans-demand-land-from-state--899452\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">independence heroes<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Meanwhile, the grip of international capital over Kenya remains strong. Global tech companies, and start-ups have a powerful presence here. The international aid sector has a huge presence in the country, using Nairobi as a base to get to other African countries. Tourist safaris continue to proliferate but ordinary Kenyans do not reap the benefits.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The current Kenyan government, headed by William Ruto of the United Democratic Alliance, came into office in August 2022. Ruto\u2019s campaign was run on populist rhetoric of \u2018bottom-up\u2019 economics and a \u2018<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/globalchallenges.ch\/issue\/9\/hustlers-versus-dynasty-kenyas-new-class-politics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">hustler versus dynasties<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2019 narrative. Ruto, previously a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/program\/talk-to-al-jazeera\/2022\/9\/24\/kenyas-ruto-a-chicken-seller-who-rose-to-the-presidency\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">chicken farmer<\/a>, claimed himself as an \u2018African revolutionary,\u2019 not a part of the ruling dynasties that President Uhuru Kenyatta (in power 2013 to 2022) and Raila Odinga (in power 2008 to 2013) represented as sons of former post-independence leaders.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The reality is, however, that neither Ruto\u2019s party, nor that of the opposition, have a clear ideological position, radical or otherwise. Most ride on the whims and interests of corporations, business interests, and the wealthy and work to protect their own intra-elite class interests, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/africasacountry.com\/2022\/06\/what-is-it-about-the-kenyan-postcolonial-state\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">upholding the status quo<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. The current protests are also being fuelled by the political opportunism and agitation of a coalition of opposition forces, Azimo La Umoja, which includes Odinga, who contested the 2022 election results.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center rp-full-width rp-quote has-grey-color has-pale-1-background-color has-text-color has-background has-antonio-font-family\" style=\"padding-top:2%;padding-right:2%;padding-bottom:2%;padding-left:2%;font-size:clamp(1.743rem, 1.743rem + ((1vw - 0.2rem) * 1.571), 3rem);\">Kimathi\u2019s struggle remains painfully relevant\u2014a struggle we want to ensure people remember<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A few months into office, Ruto reversed all policies, programmes, and initiatives that were in place to cushion ordinary citizens from the economic aftershocks of the Covid-19 pandemic. This includes the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-africa-62916580\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">scrapping of fuel subsidies<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kazi Mtaani<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (community work) for youths, doubling fuel levies, and increasing taxes on basic commodities. Inflation is sky high, and while goverment employees are receiving a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessdailyafrica.com\/bd\/economy\/ruto-gachagua-mps-set-for-14pc-pay-raise-in-src-review--4288272\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">14 per cent<\/a> salary increase, Ruto insists that the prices of basic commodities are not that bad.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In Kenya the social justice movement is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ohchr.org\/en\/stories\/2019\/12\/kenyas-social-justice-movement-expands-its-reach\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">growing<\/a>. Built around community movements, especially of young people, in informal settlements who organise against police violence and poor living conditions, these movements establish spaces (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sjc.community\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">social justice centres)<\/a> to support their efforts. Throughout the current political crisis, the social justice movement has remained true to its cause, offering grassroots political education to citizens and residents. A radical political education remains our main tool in organising as we try to create a conscious base that understands and agitates against our political system.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Debt traps and food insecurity<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The current crisis has, of course, been long in the making.&nbsp; <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The increase in prices of basic commodities has been going on for ten years, driven by reckless overborrowing, corruption, and a punitive taxation regime. Other countries on the African continent, including Nigeria, South Africa, Malawi, Rwanda, and Ghana have seen similar trends. Much of this is a direct result of the even longer-term negative impact of financial institutions, situated in the Global North, that have trapped countries in the South <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/global-debt-crisis-jayati-ghosh\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">into a new imperialism<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2014for which the conditions will only get worse.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Governments and multinationals in the North are also becoming more aggressive as they try to neutralise China\u2019s growing influence in the continent. But African governments are in a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/global-debt-crisis-jayati-ghosh\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">debt trap<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> because of misleading advice from international\/North-based \u2018experts\u2019. The <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessdailyafrica.com\/bd\/economy\/world-bank-confirms-kenya-s-lower-middle-income-status-2091060\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">World Bank Report 2020<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> said Kenya was a lower-medium income country, but the UN\u2019s Food and Agriculture Organisation\u2019s world report says <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/southernvoice.org\/kenyas-battle-with-famine-and-food-insecurity\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">81.1 per cent of Kenyans<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are unable to afford a healthy diet.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center rp-full-width rp-quote has-grey-color has-pale-1-background-color has-text-color has-background has-antonio-font-family\" style=\"padding-top:2%;padding-right:2%;padding-bottom:2%;padding-left:2%;font-size:clamp(1.743rem, 1.743rem + ((1vw - 0.2rem) * 1.571), 3rem);\">Neither Ruto\u2019s party, nor that of the opposition, have a clear ideological position, radical or otherwise<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Today the country is at risk of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theafricareport.com\/11499\/kenyas-domestic-debt-is-spiralling-out-of-\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">defaulting on loans<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. To enable the government to stay afloat, the 2023 Finance Bill targeted common citizens with aggressive tax hikes\u2014all with the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kenyans.co.ke\/news\/90969-meg-whitman-more-us-billionaires-will-flock-kenya-over-finance-act\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">support of the US government<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. This has come with structural adjustment policies akin to those introduced in the 1980s in Kenya and other African countries attached to loans from (un)development partners\u2014all of which are fuelling the conditions for protest, unrest, as well as, simply, despair.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Under these conditions, the food crisis in Kenya today is growing. Agriculture is the backbone of many African economies with land providing the primary means of production. But multinationals, such as Bayer, a German pharmaceutical and biotechnological company, in collaboration with Kenyan elites and capitalists, have been pushing through their \u2018experiments\u2019 on crops citing greater \u2018productivity\u2019 and, in the process, sideline indigenous food systems and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theelephant.info\/op-eds\/2022\/10\/12\/gmos-entrenching-kenyas-food-insecurity\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">entrench Kenyan food insecurity<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As farmers become increasingly dependent on the seeds and agrochemicals of companies like Bayer, multinationals appear to be gradually taking over the sector. In the near future, food sovereignty and security are going to be solely dependent on them and not on the millions of farmers in Africa.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What is freedom for Kenya and Africa?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The ongoing protests are an important moment for those who are interested in justice and freedom in Kenya and beyond. At the Social Justice Movement, we are organising and working to offer people routes to political education in which they can understand and articulate their discontent\u2014and organize around it. This will move us beyond a \u2018Ralia versus Ruto\u2019 intra-elite power struggle, this story is much bigger than these two leaders.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Other African countries are also entangled in this neoliberal and capitalist imbroglio. The colonialist \u2018divide and conquer\u2019 strategy has had lasting effects\u2014the division of Africa into Lusophone, Anglophone and Francophone remains a barrier, whilst North African Arab centrism and desires for <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/csalateral.org\/forum\/cultural-constructions-race-racism-middle-east-north-africa-southwest-asia-mena-swana\/whiteness-in-north-africa-tayeb\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">proximity to whiteness<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> at the expense of black Africans is palpable. Meanwhile an elite African class has no interest in changing the current situation.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As a continent, from which the power of Julius Nyerere and Kwame Nkrumah\u2019s vision of Pan-African liberation emerged, we must interrogate and introspect: what does freedom mean to us today? Is it freedom of the rich to exploit the poor as <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/untileverypod.com\/Episode-6-Political-Mastermind\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pio Gama Pinto<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> lamented? Or its freedom for the masses?&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This year, we will celebrate our strides as a country and continent, but the people&#8217;s liberation is yet to come. As Dedan Kimathi said, \u2018I would rather die on my feet than die on my knees,\u2019 but today we appear helpless. It is only if we organise, educate, and agitate that our condition will change.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gathanga Ndung&#8217;u examines Kenya&#8217;s cost of living protests and the long history behind the unrest<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":37980,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[278,1852],"tags":[2575],"class_list":["post-37612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa","category-colonialism-imperialism","tag-gathanga-ndungu"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What&#039;s behind Kenya&#039;s protests? - Red Pepper<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/rpdev2023.redpepper.org.uk\/economics-unions-work\/globalisation\/kenya-protests-cost-of-living-ruto\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What&#039;s behind Kenya&#039;s protests? 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