By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Kenyan President William Ruto on Thursday fired his entire cabinet apart from the deputy president and foreign minister, bowing to pressure from nationwide protests that have created the biggest crisis of his two-year presidency.
Ruto promised to form a new government that will be lean and efficient following weeks of protests over high taxes and poor governance.
Kenya has seen three weeks of unrest in which protesters stormed into parliament on June 25 after a finance bill that increased taxes was passed. More than 30 people died in the protests, which have morphed into calls for the president to resign.
“Recent events that necessitated the withdrawal of the finance bill, which will require a review and reorganization of our budget and fiscal management, have brought us to an infection point,” Ruto said in a state address on Thursday.
Ruto said he would consult with different sectors, political formations, and Kenyan citizens to set up a “broad-based government” that will be “lean, inexpensive, and efficient”.
He plans to announce those additional measures later.
In addition to scrapping the annual finance bill which included the tax hikes, Ruto has also sought to engage with some of the protesters, hosting an event on X with young Kenyans last week.
But this has failed to appease some demonstrators, who have continued to call for him to step down, using the hashtag #RutoMustGo and staging smaller rallies across Kenyan cities.
Public debt amounts to some 10 trillion shillings ($78 billion), around 70 percent of Kenya’s GDP.
The government’s decision to borrow more will result in the fiscal deficit rising from 3.3 percent to 4.6 percent, according to Ruto.