Not long ago, Kenyan President William Ruto was at the White House. Now, angry protesters want him gone.
By Keith B. RichburgAugust 7, 2024 at 6:15 a.m. EDTThe author, a former Washington Post bureau chief in Nairobi in the 1990s, visited the country in March, and got inklings that something was amiss. Wh...moreThe author, a former Washington Post bureau chief in Nairobi in the 1990s, visited the cou...moreWhat in the world happened to Kenya?
This started out as a stellar year for the country. In May, President William Ruto was feted with a star-studded state dinner at the White House, the first in 16 years for an African head of state. President Biden named Kenya “a major non-NATO ally.” The World Bank and International Monetary Fund were bullish on its prospects. The country was stepping onto the global stage by leading an international security mission to Haiti.
Ruto had emerged as America’s favorite African leader — as South Africa pursued an increasingly anti-Western, pro-Russian foreign policy; Niger’s democratically elected president was put under house arrest after a coup; and other countries were passing draconian anti-gay laws. Kenya seemed an island of stability in a volatile region.
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Now — poof. The mirage of the Kenyan Miracle has dissipated in a choking cloud of tear gas, a blast from a water cannon and a hail of gunfire.
In June, young Kenyans fed up with grinding poverty, widespread unemployment and pervasive government corruption took to the streets to denounce a proposed finance bill that would have raised taxes to a level that few could afford. The protesters attacked the Parliament building and partially burned it, in scenes reminiscent of what happened in Hong Kong in 2019. The protesters also besieged some lawmakers’ homes.
Security forces responded with ferocity rarely seen in Nairobi, killing dozens and abducting many others from the streets and from their homes.
On June 26, Ruto relented, withdrawing the unpopular tax bill and then dismissing almost his entire cabinet. But this shake-up, which included bringing in Ruto’s defeated presidential election rival, Raila Odinga, and hiring back some sacked ministers, failed to mollify the young protesters — again as in Hong Kong in 2019, when Chief Executive Carrie Lam’s eventual withdrawal of a controversial China extradition bill was too little, too late to assuage angry demonstrators.
“Ruto must go” is the new rallying cry. And the protests show no sign of abating.
This turn of events might seem a shock. But it might also have been foretold. During a too-brief stop in Nairobi in March, I caught hints of trouble brewing beneath the surface.
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Western economists and diplomats I spoke with talked about Kenya as “a........