Kenya’s president, William Ruto, has refused to sign into law the controversial Finance Bill 2024 that imposes high taxes on various goods and services, requesting that it be returned to parliament for reconsideration.
Citing extra pressure from members of the public, the president announced the decision Wednesday after a meeting with ruling party MPs at State House, Nairobi.
“Listening keenly to the people of Kenya who have loudly said that they want nothing to do with this Finance Bill 2024, I concede, and therefore, I will not sign the 2024 Finance Bill, and it shall subsequently be withdrawn,” he said during a press briefing after the closed-door meeting.
President Ruto’s rejection of the Finance Bill 2024 is a big victory for millions of youthful ‘GenZ’ protesters who held protests countrywide and even stormed Parliament buildings to force the government to give them a listening ear and withdraw the bill, which, they said, it sought to make their present and future lives unlivable.
Therefore, this latest move by the state will quite likely transform the landscape of the protests and even end them, as from Tuesday, there were planned protests scheduled for tomorrow.
Even if this Finance Bill 2024 has been stopped by the president, he still has to submit a memorandum to the National Assembly on why he did not sign the legislation into law before it can be given to majority leader Kimani Ichungwa’h to declare it null and void.
Whatever the case, the GenZs, but especially the baby boomers, have a reason to smile because they have been spared heavy taxation that reminded some of them of the colonialists.
