Masses rebel in Kenya against the State and Yankee imperialism
Featured image: Kenyan workers protest against the new anti-popular measures of the government. Source: Eurweb.
On the 7th of July erupted massive protests in Kenya, specially in the capital, Nairobi, as well as in other two important cities, Mombasa and Kisumu. These protests caused the closing of multiple businesses and were scattered by the police. After the first day of riots, there were more than 20 detained people according to the official figures given by police. These protests were because the government lead by Ruto, decided to raise taxes, including duplicate the taxes to the fuel and apply new ones to housing of workers. One Kenyan worker, Wafula, stated: “He [Author’s note: President Ruto] wants to tax the little money we have in our pockets. What will we eat?”.
These new protests show a raw reality: the people and the working class cannot rely on the politicians of bureaucratic capitalism. In the case of Kenya, the President Ruto announced in September of 2022 that he will make a tax reform in order to make it “fairer” and said that “the tax burden must reflect the ability to pay”, meaning the rich should pay more. But after these promises, the situation soon became against the working class and the people of Kenya, and the mass struggle began with huge protests in March and a brutal police repression was unleashed by the old Kenyan State.
Regarding Kenya, in 2022 Ruto already stated that the economical situation was bad. In fact, Kenya is one of the semi-colonial and semi-feudal countries in where the debt is choking the State’s economy and provoking severe problems to bureaucratic capitalism. We have reported earlier on debt and how it works. Kenya is mainly subjugated to Yankee imperialism, which is constantly trying to keep alive the old Kenyan State and decide which things should be done. This is shown for example with the loan of 1 billion US-Dollar made by the World Bank on May of this year. This economical institution also emphasized that this loan, also compromised Kenya to make tax reforms, for example several raises of taxes. In July, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) also approved another loan of 1 billion US-Dollar for Kenya, and again, emphasized the need of economical measures to be done in Kenya. While the brutal repression was unleashed in Kenya during these weeks, the Yankee Imperialism through its ambassador in Kenya, greeted Ruto due to the reforms, stating that these ones “give Americans safety on investing in the country”. The IMF also greeted Ruto due to these measures applied in Kenya, stating that now “Kenya is open for business.”.
For weeks the masses have taken the streets and protested, even knowing they were risking their lives during these protests. After the first week of protests, the latter ones have been intensified, specially since the Friday 14th of July, when were conveyed another three days of protests against the threats of Ruto and the repressive forces of the old Kenyan State. The most recent studies show that at least 35 people were killed by the police since the start of the protests, and there were more than 300 detained people just the last week and waiting for trials due to their struggle against the police. Police brutality is being the common situation during these weeks of protests, but even with this situation, the masses keep taking the streets and facing the police. In fact, repressive forces are showing weakness because there were meetings between high rank police officers, and they are very upset and even fear the current situation, specially because of the lack of funds and resources to handle the protests and the increasing organization of the demonstrators.
The parliamentary opposition to Ruto also is being overwhelmed by the masses. The opposition to Ruto conveyed the first demonstrations against the current government, tried to take advantage of the situation and they also tried to make the masses participate in a parliamentary initiative against the government in order to change the president. They also tried to conveyed peaceful demonstrations. But the masses clearly overcome these limitations, ignored the proposals and faced the police. Recently, the leadership of the opposition, Raila Odinga, has been absent in the last mobilizations, and the main party of opposition, Azimio La Umoja, have decided to cancel all the demonstrations of this week except the one on Wednesday 26th of July.
Despite the threats or the maneuvers of the parliamentary opposition to Ruto, the only thing that imperialism and the old Kenyan State achieved is turn the proletariat and the people of Kenya more combative. They are confronting the repressive forces the State directly and they will continue doing this for sure.
