African Leaders And Frittering of Goodwill – The Kenya Experience

By: Ebuka Franklin Okonkwo

Kenyan youths are apparently bent on forcing President William Ruto out of office for stirring the hornet’s nest. In spite conceding to their initial demand of dropping a controversial finance bill that would have increased taxes amidst the high cost of living, the protesters have remained adamant.

On Thursday, August 9, 2024, demonstrators returned to the streets on the Kenyan capital Nairobi, calling for President William Ruto’s resignation. The demonstrations, organised by activists upset with Ruto, came as a new cabinet was sworn in. Though Ruto declined to sign the controversial finance bill and sent it back to parliament saying he had “heard Kenyans who wanted nothing to do with the bill and consequently dissolved his cabinet, it appears not enough as the protesters are demanding sweeping changes. They want someone to take responsibility for those killed during the protests that started on June 18, 2024. They want the “hustler” president to resign over disappointment, bad governance, corruption, incompetence in his cabinet and a lack of accountability.

Why are young Kenyan angry with William Ruto?

The protesters are angry with Ruto because they felt that he has failed to live up to expectation or what he promised, considering how he portrayed himself as the champion of the poor and downtrodden, which he championed during the August 9 2021 election campaign. From pushing wheelbarrows to making much of the fact that he was a chicken seller in his youth, William Ruto framed the election as a contest between “hustlers” and “dynasties”, which the people bought and chose him over the veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga. Ruto painted himself as a young defender of the poor, having come from them. He spoken of how he went to school barefoot, getting his first pair of shoes at the age of 15, and how he once “hustled by selling chickens by a roadside”. In identifying with the poor, the 57 year-old combative and ambitious politician coined the phrase “Hustler Nation”.

In Kenya, hustlers refer to those – especially young people – who struggle to make ends meet in an economy that is said to be no longer working for them. The official rate of unemployment among those aged between 18 and 34 years was nearly 40%, and the economy was not creating sufficient jobs to absorb the 800,000 youths joining the workforce every year. The word dynasties, on the other hand, is a moniker to describe wealthy families that are seen to have dominated politics – and the economy – since independence from the UK in the 1960s.

During campaign, Mr Ruto gave out wheelbarrows, handcarts and water tanks to the unemployed, which endeared him to many young people. The people’s frustration and desperation to break off from the political dynasty of the Kenyattas and Odingas as well as the economic quagmire of Uhuru Kenyatta’s administration, made them see William Ruto as hope, new order and a symbol of determination to overcome the odds. The young people, who gave him the vote that brought him to office felt betrayed by certain steps he took, including the controversial finance bill that would have increased taxes amidst the high cost of living. They believed that as someone, who struggled to get everything he has achieved in life from his lowly start in Kenya’s Rift Valley, the Kalenjin heartland, he would have the welfare of the people at the centre of his policies. The young people felt that he wasn’t keeping to his words.

The Ruto dilemma

When Ruto entered office in August 2022, Kenya was already in a crisis. Its external debt was about $62bn, or 67 percent of its gross domestic product. But in 2024, the public debt has risen to $82bn, making up about 70% of Kenya’s gross domestic product, the highest in 20 years.

Former President Uhuru Kenyatta had borrowed heavily from commercial lenders and countries like China to finance huge infrastructure projects, including a rail line that links Nairobi to the port city of Mombasa. Most of those loans were commercial, meaning they had high interest rates. Meanwhile, the infrastructure failed to generate the expected revenue.

Inflation pressures from COVID-19 also lingered. Added to that were the supply chain disruptions in agriculture in Kenya that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. All these combined meant food and the general cost of living were soaring in 2022 and so were Kenya’s debts as interests accumulated.

Currently, its debt has reached $82bn, about $8bn of which is owed to China. Other creditors include the IMF, the World Bank, the United States and Saudi Arabia. The debt also includes domestic borrowing. More than half of government revenue goes towards debt repayments.
Ruto has become deeply unpopular in his two years in office over his quest to introduce taxes meant to enable Kenya to repay its $82 billion public debt to lenders.

The Kenya’s president, an advocate of self-sustainability and critic of international lenders, wants the country to raise more revenue instead borrowing and he believes that the only way to raise more revenue is to enhance taxes. But Kenyans have rejected attempts to raise taxes as they struggle with rising prices on basic goods. How Ruto’s administration will find the money to pay off debt without further angering millions of Kenyans and without slowing down the economy, is the key question. Years of mismanagement have perpetually kept Africa on the edge and created so much inequalities that the implementation of salvaging policies has become very challenging. It’s high time African leaders become purposeful, responsible and accountable.

Timeline of Protest

Protests in Kenya started on June 18 with initial calls for legislators to vote against a controversial finance bill that would have increased taxes amidst the high cost of living. On June 25, protesters stormed parliament after legislators voted to pass the bill. They wrecked destructions. President Ruto declined to sign the bill and sent it back to parliament saying he had “heard Kenyans who wanted nothing to do with the bill”.But he warned there would be revenue and expenditure consequences. According to the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, more than 50 people have died since the demonstrations started.