Austerity: Subdued Kenya’s President Ruto caves in to nationwide protests against state extravagance
Austerity measures will include the dissolution of 47 state corporations, a 50 per cent reduction in the number of government advisers, the suspension of non-essential travel by public office bearers and the removal of budget lines for the president and deputy president’s spouses, he said.
Kenya rights groups accuse Ruto regime welcoming back abductions to t crack down on protests
Organised online and leaderless, the protests – initially a call to repeal tax hikes – have developed into a movement that has cut across Kenya’s traditional ethnic divisions, becoming the biggest threat of William Ruto’s two-year-old presidency.
Economist Owino succeeds Sirima at Central Bank of Kenya as head of debt management office
Kenya’s public finances were in focus early this year because of concerns it could default over a $2 billion international bond, and more recently because of violent protests that forced President William Ruto to withdraw planned tax hikes.
Revealed: Desperate Kenya’s President Ruto calls IMF boss after being forced to recall contentious tax plan
Analysts say its withdrawal a week ago is likely to result in Kenya missing key programme targets, although the government does not urgently need cash from the IMF after it was able this year to repay a bond that was originally worth $2 billion by issuing a new seven-year bond.
While pensioners are a nation’s revered skills reservoir, unresponsive Ugandan agencies are spiriting them to early graves
In the past retired members of the NSSF and other SSFs have suffered immensely because of the neglect mooted at them by the socially-insensible, socially insensitive, socially unresponsive and socially-irresponsible SSFs, which tend to be mechanistic in their interaction with their members. But what does it mean for an SSF to be to be socially-insensible, socially-insensitive, socially-unresponsive and socially-irresponsible?
PMI: Kenya’s private sector activity shrinks in June as a result of cost-of-living crisis, protests
The Stanbic Bank Kenya Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell to 47.2 in June from 51.8 in May. Readings below 50.0 signal contraction.
Kenya mourns a giant whose death coincides with a youth revolution with bearing on African politics
As Kamukunji MP, Maina Wanjigi helped small-scale and petty traders start the Gikomba Market and the Shauri Moyo craftspeople yards that have evolved into key subsectors of the national economy as they have been replicated in other major towns.
Tax protests in Kenya switch from teargas, burning tyres and gunshots to president ‘Ruto Must Go’ calls
Outside the capital, hundreds of protesters marched through Mombasa, Kenya’s second largest city, on the Indian Ocean coast. They carried palm fronds, blew on plastic horns and beat on drums, chanting “Ruto must go!”
Kenya heads back into red zone after tax bill turmoil that complicates relations with IMF
Kenya’s sovereign dollar bonds slid after Ruto’s U-turn. Morgan Stanley said that with Eurobond yields back above 10 per cent, Kenya had limited access to international bonds, which could push them to borrow more locally.
Kenya’s youth revolution: How affinity for lies, arrogance and opulence of jet-setting Ruto stoked anger against him
The U-turn has exposed the gulf between the image of President William Ruto as the jet-setting global voice not just of Kenya but the wider continent, and the grinding realities his nation faces – weighed down by debt, corruption and security threats.
