Author: Karoli Ssemogerere. PHOTO/FILE
Kenya’s 2010 Constitution pays tribute to its violent past, at the hands of state and non-state actors. The fight for the restoration of multi-partism was achieved through acts of civil disobedience. Limited reforms in the run-up to the reintroduction of multi-partism in 1990-1991. The post-mortem of the third wave of democratisation after the 2007 ethnic riots that landed both President William Ruto and his predecessor Uhuru Kenyatta before the International Criminal Court. The fight against colonialism was brutal, especially the Mau Mau rebellion that ushered in Kenya’s independence. Kenya in 2024 is some form of detente, but one with tensions. “Kenya Mbaya” but this should be in moderation. Prices are high but how is everyone else in the same boat? What is noteworthy, are the draconian fiscal measures President Ruto has proposed to plug holes in Kenya’s leaky finances.
Mr Ruto has pushed for severe economic austerity, where mild measures and taming of the political class and society’s expectations would suffice. The political class is abhorred so soon after the 2022 elections because they have to fund the budget. More than 200 MPs, out of 338 MPs voted to pass the Finance Bill, 2024 including members of the opposition Azimio coalition. This caused outrage. In our local shops, we are paying VAT without a choice, on all processed food. Retailers in Uganda don’t have a choice. In 2022, URA positioned its officials in all supermarkets to ensure adherence to EFRIS. Notices on receipts are now normal, we automatically charge VAT even where an exemption may exist. But in Kenya, levying VAT on wheat flour a staple ingredient in chapatti, a major food group in Kenya, proved too much. Essential commodities, fuel, sugar, salt, wheat etc have always been a cartel business. However, the general population is interpreting the new fiscal measures as an extortion to fund the political class. No one is listening to the pleas of the government that it is necessary to write down the debt that grew astronomically in the last decade.
As soon as demonstrations went amok, it was time to tone down communications traffic. Major operators, Safaricom and Airtel reported outages blaming the undersea cables. In practice, the traffic controller had to turn off internet traffic as most of the messages mobilising protestors were being shared online. Portions of data could move, but these alternative channels could not support the demand for broadband. Effects were felt throughout the region.
In Uganda, vendors piggybacking on communications in their home country Kenya, all of a sudden could not process electronic payments based on sim-card failure. Glossy over the top packages used by many businesses could not function. Google services were operational, because Google uses proxy servers and it has thousands of commercial e-mail users who pay for the service.
About to start an international deposition, I received images of protestors breaching the Senate of Kenya, trying to hammer the door open, and another group ransacking Uganda House in the middle of Nairobi. My American counterpart, a young attorney was on hand to call me using whatsapp, but the deposition service software could not load on my device. Practitioners in the specialties of defence and war are astute to how difficult communications can be in war times. After we agreed to cut loose, he had a nice email replying to mine, informing him we could not proceed, he was polite and contrite, he had seen demonstrations in Kenya, and understood the scenario in which we found ourselves for 45 crucial minutes yesterday evening.
President Ruto must change tact or risk tarnishing a hard-won image of Kenya as a place to do business, the envy of the region. He is paying the price of populism in the run-up to the 2022 elections. The Opposition was quick to seize the moment if the Finance Bill is defeated. If the budget cannot be funded, the government will fall. Kalonzo Musyoka, Azimio deputy leader is of that view and Musalia Mudavadi, the prime cabinet secretary agrees. That would be a disaster of unmitigated proportions.
Mr Ssemogerere is an Attorney-At-Law and an Advocate. [email protected]
