Kenya

Understanding The #OccupyParliament Movement In Kenya

October 9, 2024 Joel Mukisa, Black Agenda Report. Strategize! #OccupyParliament, Kenya, Mass Action, Neoliberalism, Occupy Parliament, State Repression

If you asked a think-tank team leader, a social sciences Professor at Nairobi University if they anticipated the scale and popularity of the protests that rocked East Africa’s economic powerhouse Kenya, only a few months ago many honest people would simply retort, NO! The protests that rather appeared spontaneous characterized mainly by a young generation of Kenyans known as Gen Z protesting the Finance Bill (an annually produced document that lays out the government’s fiscal strategy) that would introduce a cocktail of new taxes on essential and basic commodities.

Beyond The Finance Bill: Kenya’s Ongoing Demand For Change

August 20, 2024 Nicholas Mwangi, Orinoco Tribune. Resist! IMF, Kenya, Mass Action, US Imperialism, Youth Activism

For the past five weeks, Kenya has been gripped by unprecedented protests. What began on June 18 as a rejection of the Finance Bill has expanded into a larger movement demanding better governance and radical change in the country. In society, development and events are never entirely predictable, nor do they occur in isolation. Even periods of apparent inactivity can give way to rapid change, overshadowing years of dormancy or quietness. These dynamics are evident in the ongoing protests in Kenya, that embody Lenin’s famous quote, “There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks when decades happen.”

Give Peace A Chance In Haiti: Restoring Security And Stability

July 18, 2024 Jake Johnston, Center for Economic and Policy Research. Educate! Foreign Intervention, Haiti, Kenya, Peace

At 9:16 a.m. on June 25, a Kenya Airways plane touched down in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. On board were some 200 Kenyan police, the vanguard of the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission approved by the United Nations Security Council late last year. Eventually, the force is expected to consist of 2,500 officers from at least a half dozen countries who will be tasked with restoring security and clearing the way for free and fair elections. It’s certainly not the first such mission in Haiti, where, since the mid-1990s, there have been nearly constant UN and foreign security deployments. Almost 10,000 troops were stationed in Haiti between 2004 and 2017, only to be replaced by a smaller successor mission.

Haiti May End Up Foiling US Plans For Kenya

July 13, 2024 Kim Ives, Orinoco Tribune. Educate! Antony Blinken, Haiti, Kenya, US Imperialism

Just over three weeks after he was sworn in on Jun. 3, Haiti’s de facto Prime Minister Garry Conille – without even the knowledge, much less the approval, of the Transitional Presidential Council (CPT) that appointed him – boarded a plane on Jun. 28 to visit Washington, DC, where he reported to his bosses in meetings with U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian Nichols, Deputy National Security Adviser Jonathan Finer, and paymasters from the World Bank and Interamerican Development Bank (IDB), among others. He then traveled to New York, where he addressed the UN Security Council on Jul. 3.

Responsibility For Kenya Crisis Lies At The Feet Of US Neo-Colonialism

July 10, 2024 Black Alliance For Peace, Black Agenda Report. Educate! Africa, Kenya, neo-colonialism, US Imperialism

The excessive support and public adoration the U.S. government has given to Kenya’s President William Ruto represents the racist contempt this settler state has for all of Africa and for the domestic population of descendants from the continent. Two days before African Liberation Day on May 25th and one month before the Kenyan police’s brutal crackdown on protests against the US-IMF backed Finance Act that increases taxes up to 35% on essential goods, U.S. President Biden rolled out a red carpet for Ruto at a White House state dinner. The debt that this bill is supposed to address only exists because of the incessant and indiscriminate borrowing by the previous government of Kenya, for which Ruto was vice president.

How Kenya’s Youth, Middle Classes And Working Poor Joined Forces

July 10, 2024 Caroline Kimeu, Portside. Strategize! Austerity, International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kenya, Ruto, Youth Activism

I remember Kenya’s June 25 protests like they were yesterday. The energy on the streets of Nairobi was frenetic, filled with the sound of whistles, motorcycle honks, vuvuzelas (long horns used to cheer in soccer games) and loud blasts of teargas. “We are tired,” chanted the thousands of demonstrators who had turned out to oppose government plans to introduce wide-ranging tax hikes, on what would become the bloodiest day of the protests. Hoisting up Kenyan flags, they marched through one of the city’s main avenues, which was colored pink from water cannon spray, dodging rounds of rubber bullets and teargas.

The Kenyan Intervention In Haiti: A Wave Of ‘Diplomatic’ Terrorism

July 3, 2024 Kevin Edmonds, Black Agenda Report. Educate! Canada, Foreign Intervention, Haiti, Kenya, US Imperialism

The invasion of Haiti that has just begun with the arrival of Kenyan police, was long in the making. It is the end result of a long imperialist war of destabilization and propaganda against the country. Kenya's involvement is said to be a better solution than previous interventions, but it is just a cover for the goals of western imperialist machinations.

Generation Z Is At The Forefront Of A Powerful Uprising In Kenya

July 2, 2024 Samuel Karlin, Left Voice. Resist! Gen Z, International Monetary Fund, Kenya, Technology, Youth Activism

Youth in Kenya are rising up in the face of extreme repression. Mass protests began spreading rapidly in response to President William Ruto’s attempt to pass a tax bill. The bill would have raised taxes on household essentials including sugar and cooking oil in compliance with austerity measures that the government is trying to implement in order to receive a loan from the predatory International Monetary Fund (IMF). In response, young Kenyans, proudly identifying as “Generation Z,” have organized a mass movement online. For now, this uprising is developing independently of Kenya’s traditional parties and institutions which would benefit from co-opting the movement out of the streets.

Hundreds Of Kenyan Police Arrive In Port-Au-Prince

June 28, 2024 Pablo Meriguet, People's Dispatch. Educate! ALBA Movimientos, foreign intervention in Haiti, foreign military intervention, Haiti, Haiti anti-government protests, International Peoples' Assembly (IPA), Kenya, MINUSTAH, William Ruto

400 Kenyan police officers arrived on June 25 in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. The deployment of 600 more is expected to follow in the coming days and weeks. The arrival of the Kenyan police force was authorized by the United Nations Security Council, which last year approved the dispatch of foreign law enforcement forces to the Caribbean country. The dispatch occurred the same day that Kenyan police killed eight protesters in Kenya who were protesting the unpopular neoliberal Finance Bill 2024. The armed mission in Haiti supposedly to stop the advance of gangs, which in recent months have controlled, according to some estimates, up to 80% of the territory of the capital and many other surrounding areas. Foreign police agents will be allowed to detain Haitian citizens with the local police.

IMF-Driven Policies Spark Deadly Protests In Kenya

June 27, 2024 Robert Inlakesh, MintPress News. Resist! Debt, International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kenya, Mass Action, State Violence, Taxes

At least 23 Kenyan protesters were killed on Tuesday after hundreds stormed the nation’s parliament in response to a proposed tax-hike bill, which threatens to deepen the country’s cost of living crisis. The IMF’s pressure on Nairobi to balance its budget is central to the issue. Videos of bodies strewn across the concrete and protesters storming the parliament went viral on social media. This follows protests the previous week that brought the nation to a standstill. President William Ruto, elected to address the cost of living crisis, is now seen attempting to combat dissent with force, having failed to improve conditions.

Kenya Protests: Gen Z Shows The Power Of Digital Activism

June 25, 2024 Job Mwaura, The Conversation. Organize! Digital Activism, Kenya, Mass Action, Media, Social Media, Taxes, Youth Activism

This is a powerful moment for digital activism. The protests have seen significant participation from young Kenyans who are using digital media to organise and voice their opposition. A great number of those driving the protests are Generation Z (often referred to as Gen Z) – individuals born roughly between the late 1990s and early 2010s and characterised by digital prowess and social consciousness. They have created this organic, grassroots movement which has used platforms, like social media, to mobilise and coordinate efforts quickly. Through my work I’ve documented how essential digital media has been in political participation in Kenya in the past decade.

Kenya’s President Defies His Country’s Constitution And Court To Invade Haiti

May 31, 2024 Ann Garrison, Black Agenda Report. Educate! Haiti, International Criminal Court (ICC), Kenya, US Imperialism, Wars and Militarism

Mwai Kibaki became president from 2002 to 2013, then Uhuru Kenyatta from 2013 to 2022. When Ruto was elected nothing much changed. Corruption remained endemic, and I think this explains a lot, though you don’t see it highlighted in Western media, because Kenya is a Western ally. Same thing with Ukraine. I think this corruption creates a pressure point for Western nations. Our leaders store their ill-gotten wealth in the West, in property, tax havens, and so forth, and it could all be sanctioned and seized if they didn’t do what the West wants. The same is true of a lot of African leaders. Also, our president now, William Ruto, is one of six guys who were sent to stand trial at the ICC.

Kenya Halts Police Deployment To Haiti After Resignation Of Ariel Henry

March 14, 2024 Tanupriya Singh, People's Dispatch. Educate! Ariel Henry, CARICOM, Haiti, Kenya, Military Intervention, United Nations (UN)

Kenya has suspended a police deployment to Haiti to be part of a US- and UN-backed mission, shortly after the de facto prime minister and president of the Caribbean country, Ariel Henry, announced his decision to resign on March 11. Abraham Korir Sing’Oei, the principal secretary of Kenya’s foreign ministry, stated on March 12 that the deployment would be “contingent on the ground situation, and the critical ground situation is that there has to be an authority that can be the basis for a police deployment, that enjoys constitutional authority in Haiti”.

Flouting High Court, Haitian Outrage, US Storms Forward With Intervention

March 6, 2024 Kim Ives, Orinoco Tribune. Educate! Ariel Henry, Haiti, Kenya, US Imperialism, William Ruto

Just as it is opposing and trampling the International Court of Justice’s ruling against Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza, Washington is running roughshod over the Kenyan High Court’s Janurary 26 ruling that the East African nation’s police force cannot be deployed to Haiti under Kenya’s Constitution. The Court explained that, to be legal, Haiti would have to request a “bilateral” arrangement for deployment with Kenya, an apparent loophole that Washington and Kenya’s President William Ruto leapt for. At an Italy-Africa summit in Rome on January 30, Ruto declared that the mission would go ahead as soon as “all the paperwork is done between Kenya and Haiti on the bilateral route that has been suggested by the court.”

‘Commitment Pooling’ To Build Economic Commons

March 2, 2024 David Bollier. Create! Alternative Currency, Community Control, Kenya, New Economy

Sixteen years ago, when he moved to Kenya, development economist Will Ruddick realized that many poorer communities are not as helpless as they might think. They may not have as much money to meet their needs, but they do have goods and services to offer each other -- cooking, tutoring, bike repair, taxi rides, and so forth. The real problem is the scarcity of a currency to enable exchange; the national currency, the Kenyan shilling, is not so plentiful in many neighborhoods. So, working with small businesses and households, Ruddick and members of the group he founded, Grassroots Economics, set out to create what he calls "community inclusion currencies."

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