- International Socialists in Africa salute the spirit of popular struggle lit in Kenya by youths who have taken to the streets in large numbers once more, despite the massive repression by the Kenyan state, led by President Ruto. This resistance is a beacon in an era marked by capitalist crises and mounting revolts. It calls for solidarity that unites us together in fightback against capitalism and imperialism in Africa, Palestine and worldwide. We draw the attention of the world once more to the fact that the Kenyan security forces killed over 16 protesters in June, and at least 31 more people on 7 July during the “Saba Saba” protests. Over 100 people were wounded as well, and 532 people arrested, while security forces also abducted protesters with impunity. Meanwhile, President Ruto continues with rhetoric demonising the protest and ordering police to “shoot their legs so they break”. This is totally unacceptable. We condemn this reprehensible repression. The right to protest must be respected. The perpetrators of these heinous crimes must be brought to book. And Ruto must go!.
- The movement on the streets of Kenya is building on the historic rebellion last year when hundreds of thousands of youths turned out for the anti-Finance Bill protests. This was within a context of massive working class struggles manifested in huge strikes such as those of the Kenyan Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) and the aviation workers’ strike against privatisation. Farmers in the rural areas were also challenging land-grabbing cartels and a stranglehold on seeds and fertilisers. Poor working people in the urban areas, particularly women, had also been up in revolt. It was in this context that President Ruto’s presentation of a Finance Bill that would increase the tax burden on the poor was a generalised attack on the working people, women, and youth. It sparked mass mobilisation, with demonstrations in every part of Kenya, reaching a peak on 25 June 2024, when the youths stormed and took over the parliament in Nairobi.
- The state’s immediate response, just as what we have witnessed these past few weeks, was an insane show of force. The Kenya Defence Forces were deployed to quash the mass movement. President Ruto declared the movement as “treasonous” and boasted that it would be smashed. But this did not deter the movement. Beyond scrapping the bill, it demanded the exit of Ruto as president. The government beat a retreat, withdrawing the Finance Bill. But the associated austerity measures continued. The living standards of working people and youth worsened while those in power flaunted their ill-got wealth with ostentatious lifestyles. Those who dare speak out are in mortal danger, as shown with the extrajudicial killing of the blogger Albert Ojwang, while in police custody last month.
- This situation set the stage for the current wave of protests in the wake of the killing of Ojwang and to commemorate the first anniversary of the anti-Finance Bill protests, symbolised by the 25 June storming of the parliament. Kenyans, and particularly so the GenZ remember Mr Ruto promised to take actions that would favour the hustling of poor people and young professionals for a better life when campaigning to be president. But his government has served only the rich few, and the imperialist interests which the Kenyan ruling class acts for as a principal regional watchdog. The lives of poor working people and youth have been on an abysmal trajectory of decline. Government spending on social services has been cut. Real wages have fallen. Life has increasingly become brutal and nasty for the immense majority of the population. The youths have learnt from practice that nothing will change except mass action is taken to change the situation. Their confidence is inspiring and they will not be deterred. There are attempts by factions of the ruling class coalescing around the former deputy president, Rigathi Gashagua, to co-opt the movement ahead of the 2027 elections. The youths can have no faith in any section of the ruling class. Before the major protests in 2024, there were protests at a smaller scale in 2023 against an earlier Finance Bill, led by Raila Odinga of the official capitalist opposition. By 2024, he was with Ruto in repressing the mass movement.
- The suffering that working people and youth are going through in Kenya and rising mood of resistance are both similarly felt across Africa, and indeed worldwide. Over the last five years, young people have risen up against economic hardship, political oppression and police repression. The secret of our economic hardship lies in the wealth of the capitalists and their corporations. There is social inequality to an extent never before seen in human history. The wealth of a handful of people is enough to end poverty. But, despite the illusion sown by philantrocapitalist foundations and their apologists, the rich will never give away their wealth. The problem is rooted in how capitalism works: extracting all the value it can out of the working class and prioritising the expansion of profit over the lives of the people or the health of the planet.
- Capitalism is a global system. Imperialism is written into its DNA. Africa has been a playground for competing imperialist interests. Governments in Africa, such as the Ruto government in Kenya have been more beholden to international financial institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund and the policies they represent: deregulation, privatisation, liberalisation, all of which are meant to enable exploitation of our labour and lands for the expansion of capital. It was clear to the Kenyan youths that the Finance Bill was taken by Ruto from the playbook of the IMF. The United States designates Kenya as a special non-NATO ally. The Kenyan state acts as the principal watchdog of Western imperialist interests in East and Central Africa and as a bulwark against expanding Chinese and Russian imperialism across Africa.The capitalists in our countries are tied by the hip to imperialist interests. They are themselves capitalists, benefiting alongside imperialism from exploiting us. Our struggle, the struggle of Kenya’s working people and youth, the struggle of workers, youths, poor farmers and all exploited and oppressed people in Africa must be against all forms of imperialism and anti-capitalist, for us to end the exploitation we face and win our liberation. And our liberation can be won only by ourselves as the Kenyan youths’ action shows us; through strikes, mass protests, rebellion, people’s power and revolution. For this we need complete political independence from all sections of the ruling class of millionaires, billionaires, traditional politicians, and army generals.
- As International Socialists from revolutionary socialist groups in Africa, we support the workers and youths in Kenya as their resistance to repression remains resilient. And we call for:
- Unity of the mass civic political and socio-economic organisations: students, trade unions, social justice centres, community-based associations, farmers, women’s movement standing up with one voice behind the protest will march to victory for the people over the class of exploiters and oppressors which Ruto represents.
- Justice for the protesters: the state must accept responsibility for everyone killed, including compensation to their families, release all protesters being held by the security forces.
- Support for the protesting youths by organised labour: we urge the trade unions in Kenya to come out in full support of the protests; declaration of an indefinite general strike until the demands of the movement are met would bring immense power to bear against the anti-people Kenyan state
- Ruto must go – for a provisional government of workers and youths: the immediate resignation and abdication of Mr Ruto from power. The constitution of a provisional government of workers and youths by the revolutionary youths and rank-and-file workers in Kenya.
- Deepening the struggle and reinforcing solidarity: working class and youth solidarity for the struggle in Kenya, and fanning the embers of revolutionary anti-capitalist struggle against imperialism and for our self-liberation as the exploited and oppressed wretched of the earth.
International Socialist Tendency (IST) in Africa: International Socialists (IS) Botswana, International Socialist Organization (ISO) Ghana, Socialist Workers League (SWL) Nigeria, Keep Left (KL) South Africa, International Socialist Organization (ISO) Zimbabwe.
Issued: 11 July 2025
