Nairobi, Kenya — In an address to the nation on Wednesday, Kenyan President William Ruto said that he's decided not to sign a bill that included a series of tax increases.
He spoke one day after more than 20 people were killed during protests against the bill that led to clashes with police.
"I concede and therefore I will not sign the 2024 finance bill. It shall subsequently be withdrawn and that shall be our collective position," he said.
Ruto made the statement from the State House on Wednesday in the presence of lawmakers and thanked those who voted yes for the bill.
The bill won approval in parliament Tuesday but lawmakers fled the scene as clashes between police and protesters mounted and hundreds of demonstrators stormed the complex. Parts of the parliament were set on fire and burned for hours.
Late Tuesday evening, the Kenyan president condemned protesters' storming of the parliament as treasonous and a threat to national security.
On Wednesday, human rights defenders and good governance organizations gathered at Kenya Human Rights Commission to condemn the violence against the protesters and accused the president of being accountable for what had happened on Tuesday.
Grace Wangechi is a human rights and social development expert and the executive director of Independent Medico Legal Unit, or IMLU, an organization created in 1993 to protest against torture in Kenya.
"There's absolutely nothing wrong with Kenyans getting on the streets to voice themselves. This is a constitutional provision as part of the Kenyan constitution 2010," Wengechi said.
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Lorna Dias, human rights defender and executive coordinator of Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya, said, "There's nothing that justifies the use of live bullets on protesters."
"The destruction of property that happened on the streets was a security failure, and this regime should take the blame," Dias said.
Deputy President of Kenya Rigathi Gachagua, who also addressed the nation after his boss from the coastal city of Mombasa, said he sympathized with the president but blamed the National Intelligence Service head, Noordin Haji, for Tuesday's violence.
Gachagua said that had the National Intelligence Service "briefed the president that this bill was unpopular with the Kenyan people, there would not have been deaths and ...mayhem."
There was no immediate response from the intelligence service.
The deputy president asked the protesters to call off other planned protests tomorrow, saying that when that happens, "we can begin an honest conversation on how to work on our country."
