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Protests - Blog Posts
Protests in Kenya
Hey guys, I'm not sure if you've heard, but there are protests happening in Kenya. As someone living in Kenya, I want to keep you updated and inform of what happening, preferably as soon as possible (I've already delayed like a week) before the internet cuts become more serious (which hopefully it doesn't, but you never know. Or there might be national blackout)
Okay, let's start with some context. So I believe it was last Sunday, June 16th was when the Finance Bill was introduced. The Finance Bill basically goes over the budget for the government, and the measures the government is going to take to finance the budget. This bill was widely unpopular because of the amount of taxes introduced on basic necessities, such as bread, feminine hygiene products (pads and stuff), diapers, cars (not buying a new car, but literally just having one on the road), vegetable oil, fuel, and sugar. They even taxed medical treatments, such as cancer treatments and Mpesa, which is a mobile money service that so many across the country use to send and receive money, as well as pay for anything.
This is coupled by the fact that the government doesn't really do all too much for the average Kenyan, so all these extra taxes will not come back to the people. Just in the past month, our president, William Ruto, was going from country to country on our tax dollars. Just in this year alone he has done 20 international visits, and the year is only about halfway done. A lot of the tax dollars go to 'confidential expenditures', which is just whatever the officials want it to be. All of this money being spent by top government officials, but our public school system is not good, we still get frequent power outages (unless you live near State House (where the president lives)), water isn't guaranteed (my family once had no municipal water for months, and had to buy a water tank and supply our own water), youth unemployment is high, healthcare is lacking, the roads are not well built, the cost of living is higher than it's ever been, the shilling is doing badly (especially against the dollar) among many other issues.
So, fed up with all of this excessive taxation, and the corruption of the politicians, many people, especially young people have taken into the streets to protest. If you read Kenyan news, you may hear the word 'maandamano' being used to describe it, just know that it means protests, basically. Starting in Nairobi City Center (or Town, as it's locally called), the protests have spread across the country to almost every major city. Of course with protests comes police pushback.
Teargas has been used against the crowds, although some protestors are brave enough to just through it back to the police. Water cannons have been used, and recently guns. At least 5 people have died in the protests, with a couple hundred injured.
Amidst all of this, the government has decided to amend some parts of the bill, getting rid of some taxes, such as the taxes on cars and Mpesa, or changing some, such as now only imported feminine hygiene products and diapers will be taxed; domestic ones will not. This happened late last week, I believe Friday June 21st or so, and is expected to go into effect July 1st. However, this is still not enough, as the protestors were calling for the bill to be rejected completely, and led to more protests happening yesterday, Tuesday, June 25th, and more planned for tomorrow (Thursday, June 27th). Yesterdays protests were a lot more intense, with the parliment building being breached and set on fire (it didn't burn down in it's entirety), and the crowds being larger than usual.
This led to Safaricom, one of the biggest internet and cell service providers to basically disconnect us yesterday afternoon. As someone who has a Safaricom sim card and home internet, I can confirm that the internet was unbearably slow. Some social media sites, such as Youtube or Pinterest worked, although many things didn't load. Snapchat and Whatsapp worked as well, faster than the first two, but still noticeably slower. I could not get into Tumblr at all yesterday, which is what prompted me to write this long text post. If I disappear for a couple of days, you know what happens. There's also the possibility of a national blackout, but that's kinda not new. Sometimes, Kenya Power is just 'silly' and there's no power in the entire country. It's happened at least once in the past year.
So, what can you do? Personally, I think just being aware and speaking about this is probably one of the best things to do for now. Other than a national blackout, I don't see this situation devolving into full-scale violence, and I'm hoping really hard that it doesn't. If you have any friends or relative in Kenya, perhaps reach out to them and make sure that they're okay. In addition, as you keep the situation of Kenya in mind, be sure to also keep in mind what's happening in other parts of the world, such as Palestine, Congo, and Sudan. We're not free until everyone is free.
Anyways, thanks for reading, I'll drop links for further info below.
PS. I forgot to mention that firstly, we've sent police to Haiti, even though I'm fairly sure that we're not allowed to do that. Secondly, the government has threatened to shut down KTN, a major news broadcasting service in response to this.
PPS. I forgot to mention that this isn't the first time that there were protests against him. It happened around summertime last year as well, although those protests were organized by his main opposition, Raila Odinga, who was basically pulling a Trump. I believe the national blackout happened in the midst of all of that, so my fear for a national blackout is not unfounded.
Update (27/6/24) : So, the finance bill has passed in Parliament, but Ruto has refused to sign it, which you might consider a win, right? Well, not really. Since Parliament has already passed it, if they don't rescind it, it will become law in 21 days. All he's done is kinda bought himself time to oppress the protestors since if Parliament doesn't' rescind it, it'll go into effect later than July 1st.
I'm trying to see if I can find what the government has allocated funds to in order to paint a picture of how the government is misuing our tax money, but I can't seem to find a credible source, just things put on social media. A starting point, for sure. I'll be back this afternoon to continue looking
Also, I'm okay! I'm safe, and will most likely be for the time being! There are some protests near my house but I personally have not physically been at the protests. Today is another scheduled day for protests, so we'll see what comes out of this (hopefully no violence, but I did talk to a guy who went Tuesday, and he said that someone got shot right next to him, so... yikes.)
Okay, I'm back, and here's what I found. This article from the Nation, a Kenyan news source, goes over the budget for the deputy president, Rigathi Gachagua. These figures seemed to be the source of what many on social media are quoting, so I'll link the article here.
As well as this video from Tiktok that goes over what the article is saying:
I will list the prices in the infochart from the Tiktok in USD so you can get a sense of how much money this is. Keep in mind that this is just for DP Gachagua alone. Conversion rate is 100 shillings to 0.77 dollars.
Karen Home Renovation (For context, Karen is a wealthy residential area in Nairobi where the deputy president lives): $5,106,382.97 (5.1 million)
Harambee Annex Office (His office) Refurbishment: $3,558,994.19 (3.56 million)
Confidential Expenditure (Whatever he wants it to be without reporting what exactly it was): $6,808,510.63 (6.8 million)
Drug Abuse Fight*: $1,934,235.98 (1.9 million)
Medals: $1,934,235.98 (1.9 million)
Motor Vehicles: $1,547,388.78 (1.5 million)
Household Appliances: $19,342.36
Office Furniture: $290,135.40
Educational Aids*: $15,473.89
Laundry: $16,247.58
Internet Connection: $77,369.44
Accomodation: $704,061.89
Gas: 4,023.21
*The reason the person in the video laughed at this is because politicians here have a history of allocating funds to public works but the money gets taken. That's why a lot of roads are half finished, some official took the money that was meant to finish the road.
Also, to give a sense of the purchasing power of the Kenyan shilling, my daily commute costs about 160 ksh. A six pack of hot dog rolls is 120. Snickers is like 224. I got oatmeal and chia seeds for 789. Some Sony Bluetooth headphones are going for about 7,000. So please let that sink it how much money that is, and why we're so mad and insistent on not paying any more taxes.
(7/24/7: Reblogged this with more updates.)
http://www.parliament.go.ke/sites/default/files/2024-05/Finance%20Bill%2C%202024_0.pdf
a lot of the coverage of the Palestinian genocide is focusing on the US student protests and the narrative is constantly in danger of shifting away from what the protests are actually about and a lot of the language is now speaking in terms of police brutality, silencing of free speech, etc. It's not a radical thing to say that this isn't exactly helpful to the Palestinian cause if the actual reasons for the protests aren't constantly front and center. A lot of people have already made this point. I do not think the genie can necessarily be put back in the bottle with how the protests and the police reaction to them are entering the public consciousness of the USian people. A lot of people are or will become aware of these protests through the lense of these simply being instances of police brutality, and police brutality is a critical issue that many USamericans are very passionate about thus making it difficult to reframe the context of these images of police slamming white professors into pavement towards awareness of Israels decades long illegal occupation and systematic and indiscriminate displacement and murder of Palestinians. What I feel needs to be done is try to reframe these images flooding the internet not *away* from issues of police brutality and homesoil fascism, but in the wider context of imperialist governments taking the lessons they learn oppressing "foreign peoples" and turning them inwards. That police brutality is not disconnected from imperialist mass murder. That the one thing connecting the assaulted USian protester and the trans israeli denied gender affirming care for refusing to serve in the fascist Israeli military and the Palestinian child buried alive for the crime of being Palestinian... the one thing connecting them is that, sooner or later, they are all victims of power. Our rights are granted to us inequitably, unevenly, and are just as quickly stripped away when we do not serve the interests of fascist power. We are either a tool of the state or an enemy of the state. The Palestinian, not the innocent or the guilty but the human being Palestinian, is murdered because she can not be useful to the state while she is still breathing. She can never have the "privilege" of being a tool. I'll say it again: We outside of Palestine who can go to protests, who have families, who are able bodied, who can work, who can keep their head down or speak without immediate retaliation have the "honor" of choosing to be a tool of the state or an enemy of the state. The Palestinian has no choice.
There will always be an armed cop ready to arrest you and kill your brother as long as there is a bomb ready to drop on the heads of Palestinian children. Fascism trickles up and inward.
FOR INFO ON BLM AND WAYS YOU CAN HELP, VISIT: tinyurl.com/blminfodocument
‼️FACEBOOK FUNDRAISER SURRORT FOR BELARUS‼️
there are english, polish and czech descriptions available, but machine translation will help you anyways.
all the raised money will go to victims of repressions and their families to suppprt them.
you'll need a gmail address to donate, i hope it isn't a problem.
you can donate from anywhere in the world!
educate yourself and spread the information!!
you can also subscribe to Facebook, Telegram and Instagram accounts of the campaign
«so as we now realize americans are just like that shitty friend that you can tell anything about your current life situation and they will interrupt you saying that they feel even worse and also their bathroom is leaking»
there are protests in Belarus now, but nobody besides CIS countries seems to care. during blm protests the whole world just exploded, people were talking about them everywhere, i saw americans telling russians that they don't talk about it enough.
and now what?
now yall are either quiet, or telling belarusians how bad it is in US now. thank you so much for your support🥰
There's an Amazon protest going on now! Please boycott if you can, though I understand many can't or don't have the spoons to
Their website has a bright ass background so information on it below the cut to avoid eyestrain
Amazon is one of the most powerful corporations in history.
It is remaking how the economy works in the 21st century squeezing every last drop it can at every turn. The Amazon business model:
Squeezes workers: While tripling profits in early 2024, Amazon surveils and pressures drivers and warehouse workers at the risk of severe physical and mental harm.
Squeezes communities: While Amazon drained 2 billion US dollars from US communities to build new data centres, Jeff Bezos moved to Miami to save 600 million US dollars in taxes.
Squeezes the planet: While Amazon plans to deploy 465,000 new, energy-hungry AI servers each year, most of them won’t be powered by renewable electricity. From Black Friday to Cyber Monday (29 November to 2 December) we are uniting across the globe for one thing: to Make Amazon Pay.
We, workers, activists and citizens, will be rising up everywhere on the busiest shopping days of the year to fight Amazon’s exploitation of workers, our communities and the planet.
Our success will shape the global economy in the 21st century. Together, we have the power to Make Amazon Pay. Join us and take action.
The Make Amazon Pay campaign brings together over 80 organisations working towards labour, tax, climate, data and racial justice, and over 400 parliamentarians and tens of thousands of supporters from across the world. Since 2020, we have organized four global days of action on Black Friday — each time growing our planetary movement to stop Amazon squeezing workers, communities and the planet. And in October 2023, we organized our first-ever Summit to Make Amazon Pay in Manchester, UK.
Hey folks, I live in Seattle and up till a couple years ago I lived on Capitol Hill. I still have friends living there. So I thought I’d provide some local insight into the CHAZ (Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone).
There is a lot of misinformation out there, especially from Fox News, which photoshopped a gunman into pics, wow.
First, the best resources to find CHAZ info are local to Seattle: The Seattle Times, Capitol Hill Blog, and the CHAZ livestream where you can see the streets for yourself.
Capitol Hill is a very densely populated neighborhood full of apartment buildings and bustling restaurants and bars. If you work there, you live there (because it is hard to navigate by car, like NYC), and if you live there, you are probably super liberal. It’s also the center of counter-culture and LGBTQ culture in Seattle.
Are the protesters terrorizing the locals?
No, the protesters ARE the locals. They live in the many, many apartment buildings on Capitol Hill. Having lived there for years, believe me when I say “fuck the police” is a prevalent opinion there even when there isn’t a nationwide protest.
Is there looting? How are businesses protecting themselves?
The local businesses are not being looted; they are open and are doing a booming business. Also, a lot of workers / business owners ARE protesters.
I saw a picture of Seattle on fire!
Actually you saw a picture of a protest in Minnesota that Fox News pretended was Seattle because they are frauds and shills.
How big is the Autonomous Zone?
Six square blocks.
How did this situation come about?
There was a peaceful march. The mayor abruptly set a 5 pm curfew. The protesters ignored it and marched anyway. Then the police set up barricades to stop the march. The cops started using tear-gas and flash-bangs and the situation devolved from there. (You can find videos of this on Capitol Hill Blog.) What prompted the tear-gas was … one of the protesters thrust a pink umbrella over the barrier. Yes, really.
The situation deteriorated for several days/nights running until the police abandoned the East Precinct on Capitol Hill. The violence was very one-sided: the police attacking the protesters.
Then the police left. From what I heard the mayor ordered them out due to rumors or fears that the police station would be burned down? Which didn’t happen. Anyway, they abruptly left. As in, hired a literal moving truck and emptied out their headquarters, in almost a comedic beat.
Do you have to show your ID to enter the Autonomous Zone?
No. People come and go freely. City services are also allowed to come and go (and I presume delivery trucks but I haven’t looked into that.)
What’s with the physical barriers if people can come and go freely?
They’re to keep vehicles out.
Backstory: While the protests were ongoing, a guy (whose brother was an East Precinct cop) tried to ram his car into a crowd of protesters. A brave man eating a hot dog threw himself at the side of the car, grabbed the steering wheel through the open window, and stopped him. Whereupon cop-brother-car-man shot him with a gun.
Personally I think cop-brother-car-man was planning a mass shooting because he had extra ammo taped to his hoodie sleeve. You can see the blue tape on his arm in the pic above. (The protester who was shot thankfully survived. Check out those brave medics tending him while an ACTIVE SHOOTER is standing feet away!)
But anyway, that’s why there are barriers. I believe they move them aside for approved vehicles, like emergency vehicles or deliveries.
Are there people with guns roaming around?
Not on a regular basis, although I’ve heard a local gun club had some members there one night when it was rumored the Proud Boys (a Nazi group) might show up. (They didn’t.) But in general, no.
Is it scary??
No. The neighborhood is fully on board and overall there is a festive atmosphere. There are speeches about BLM, about discrimination, about what people want for the neighborhood. There are first aid stations, medics and counselors, and people offering free pizza. If you watch the livestreams, you can see people walking their dogs, out with their kids, etc.
Where will this all end?
I don’t know. The barriers can’t stay up forever and I think everyone knows that. The “Autonomous Zone” name is tongue-in-cheek, the protesters aren’t actually trying to secede from the United States. Basically, this is a boiling over of frustration. The police have never been good-faith neighbors on Capitol Hill. Also Seattle police have always been pretty racist and had a problem with excessive force.
Look at this whole situation. All the police had to do was stand back and let the protesters march; they would have marched and gone home and that would be that. All the police had to do was nothing. Instead they turned a neighborhood into a warzone.
By the way, did you know that yesterday (6/12) in a different Seattle neighborhood 60,000 people marched to support BLM? And because the city had learned its lesson about dumbass curfews, they let everyone march and nothing bad happened.
Weird how the national news didn’t report on that march, huh? Almost like they cherrypick the protests that will appear “scary” to their audience.