Public Anger Grows Against Ruto as Govt Pushes on with Finance Bill
Former Chie Justice Dr. Willy Mutunga leads activists in march to DCI HQs to demand that security agencies follow the law in discharging their duties
By THEDISPATCH.DIITAL REPORTER
Anger against the government of William Ruto appeared to mount over the weekend with growing calls for greater participation in the planned Tuesday “Reject Finance Bill” demos.
Weekend church prayers were awash with more citizens coming out to boldly declare they would participate in the demonstrations.
THEDISPATCH.DIGITAL reporters met with several people who had committed to buy water and support the demonstrations. It was understood that the La Society of Kenya had planned to support the demonstrators by placing lawyers at all police stations where arrested demonstrators would be taken to arrange for bail. The medical fraternity had also made arrangements to post doctors in the marchers and demos to take care of any injured persons and transport them to the nearest medical facilities.
While the demonstrators wee prepared for the government reacting to them with violence, sources told THEDISPATCH.DIGITAL that there wee plans by some government operatives, mainly politicians, to hire thugs and use them to disrupt the demonstrations by unleashing violence on the demonstrators.
The government has so far not be able to identify the leaders of the protests, although a few people have been arrested. But analysts pointed out that those arrested were only the most vocal, no the leaders of the movement, which appears to be led by a collective spontaneity that the government has been unable to contain.
In Nairobi, activist Shadrack Kiptoo, alias Shad Khalif was adducted in South B, Nairobi as he made to enter his car in a parking lot. According to shared video footage, Khalif was bundled into the middle rear seat of a white Toyota Lan Cruise Prado and sandwiched between two me and driven away at high speed.
The abductions led activists Boniface Mwangi, Hanifa Adan, Hussein Khalif and former Chief Justice Dr. Willy Mutunga to proceed to the DCI headquarters along Limuru Road to lead a demonstration to demand the production of those individuals believed to have been abducted by police agents. The activists accompanied by a small group of lawyers, was allowed into the DCI headquarters we had not established what wat discussed as we filed this story. Dr. Mutunga had earlier insisted that law enforcement officers must follow the law when discharging their duties.
The protests had spread to Washington DC, United States, where protestors assembled outside the Kenyan embassy at 2240 R St NW, Washington DC 200008 with placards to chant “Ruto Must Go!”
As anger mounted, an online campaign to cancel the Finance Bill 20924 was launched. The campaign, conducted mainly on social media apps like WhatsApp, Facebook and X, called on Kenyans o sign a petition to “sign the petition and get justice for Rex”. Rex, a protestor shot without provocation in Nairobi last week. The petition was hosted on the platform Change.org and with a single click for commitment, was growing by the second. But it seemed to have a problem as in the details, it said the petition was one to get Ghana’s President Nana Akufo Ado to sign an Ant-LGBTQ Bill, and not the Kenya Finance Bill 2024.
In other areas, it was reported that comedian Eddie Butita, who has publicly supported President Ruto, had his YouTube channel with over 355,000 followers disappear online. How that happened is unclear but it will certainly impact the content creator’s career negatively.
