'For a better Kenya': protesters ready for new march despite Ruto U-turn
Kenyan demonstrators prepared to resume protests Thursday, a day after President William Ruto made a dramatic U-turn and withdrew contentious tax hikes following deadly rallies earlier in the week.
The demonstrations were sparked last week by the 2024 finance bill and took Ruto's government by surprise as the initially peaceful rallies gathered momentum across the country.
But dramatic scenes Tuesday outside parliament, which saw the partly ablaze complex breached and ransacked, left the nation reeling as a state-backed rights group counted 22 dead nationwide in the aftermath and vowed an investigation.
Addressing a shocked nation on Wednesday afternoon, Ruto said he would not sign the bill, and "it shall subsequently be withdrawn".
"The people have spoken," he said, adding that he would seek "engagement with the young people of our nation".
It was a marked shift from his tough-talking late-night address Tuesday when he likened some of the demonstrators to "criminals".
However, prominent protesters dismissed his comments, with one, Hanifa Adan, labelling it a "PR" move after the violence at rallies earlier in the week.
Adan said earlier that protesters would "march peacefully again as we wear white, for all our fallen people", with some supporters planning to bring flowers in memory of the dead.
"You cannot kill all of us," she said on X.
Nelly, 25, told AFP that she intended to join the march on Thursday, criticising Ruto's approach as a case of too little, too late.
Read more on RFI English
Read also:
Five killed, dozens injured in Kenya during anti-tax hike protests
First contingent of Kenyan security forces leave for Haiti
Kenyans promise more rallies as president pressured to rethink tax hikes
