Recent events in Kenya have drawn global attention as the nation grapples with significant unrest. The capital city of Nairobi has become a focal point of tension, with security forces confronting civilian protesters. To gain a deeper understanding of the situation on the ground and its potential global implications, we are honored to welcome a distinguished guest: Mr. Ken Aseka, Editor-in-Chief of The Kenya Times.
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#KenyaUnrest #KenyaRiots #KenyaProtests #WilliamRuto #KenyaNews #KenyaUpdates #Africanews #Worldnews #Oneindia #Oneindianews
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NewsTranscript
00:00Hello there this is me Ansh Pandey and you are watching One India English.
00:04Viewers for the last few days the streets of Nairobi that is the capital of Kenya is burning
00:11and the people there are protesting on the streets. The army has been deployed because
00:16an emergency has been declared and the streets are still in a very great turmoil. The people are
00:23still protesting against a draconian law which they deem that is draconian by the president
00:29William Ruto, a new tax bill which the people say is going to burden them even more at the time of
00:35an economic crisis. Today to understand this situation better we have got one person from
00:40the ground with us. We hope that this person is the perfect fit for that to understand and to
00:47delve into the analysis and all the things that whatever has happened for the last few days in
00:52Kenya. We have Mr Ken Asika who is the editor-in-chief of the Kenya Times. Thank you for joining us sir.
01:00Thank you Pandey. Yes sir. Mr Asika firstly a big thank you once again from the One India team
01:08for joining us. Sir without wasting further time I would like just to ask you very important
01:14questions from there. What exactly is the situation for the last one week there? Emergency has been
01:21declared, the streets are still, we are watching the videos on YouTube, on Twitter whatever is
01:26happening. I would like you to explain that what is happening to the international viewers
01:32that what exactly is the situation even right now. Thank you. So as we speak at the moment
01:39the situation is a bit tense in Nairobi. I spent around 30 minutes within the Nairobi
01:47central business district just to move from one street to another and trying to understand
01:55how the situation looks like. So it is a bit calm but with some tension because
02:02remember the protesters had vowed to march to the state house today, Thursday the 27th of June
02:13to press and push the government or rather the president to back off and withdraw the
02:21controversial finance bill. But yesterday just hours to this protest the president
02:29went ahead and withdrew the bill and actually sent a memorandum to the parliament stating that he
02:37has withdrawn the bill and that all the clauses that were controversial need to be deleted
02:44and therefore creating room for dialogue with the protesters. I remember before yesterday of
02:54course the president had addressed the nation previous days and condemned the riots or rather
03:02the violence that was witnessed on on Tuesday this week where protesters actually stormed
03:11parliament, overpowered and breached security and stormed parliament and the aftermath was actually
03:18loss of death, loss of lives and a mess. It was so messy because these protesters got into the
03:27chambers, some sat on the chairs of the speaker, took selfies within the chambers and in the
03:34process of retaliation and just trying to contain the situation, police moved in and a number of
03:42deaths were reported. At least close to 20 people were confirmed dead and that was on Tuesday this
03:49week. But the protests have been going on for the last two weeks, even last week there were police.
03:55Yeah, so more than 20 people have died. As you stated sir, president William Ruto yesterday
04:00backed up from the bill and made it clear that even I was watching that, that he's sending the
04:06bill back to the parliament, he's sending the bill back to the parliament for further negotiations
04:10and to understand it, to make it more easy for the people, to make the bill more convenient for them.
04:16But sir, however most of the world including here in India, many people still don't understand the
04:22specifics of the bill and why the people are enraged over that bill. Can you please elaborate
04:28a little specifics of this bill and why exactly the people are protesting, why exactly the 54
04:34million people of Kenya are worried about this bill? Well, so to just give you some context,
04:42so Kenya is really in a debt hole, what I can call a debt hole. Kenya is buckling huge debts
04:49that have been accumulated for the past several years and as a way of bridging that gap and
04:57raising more revenue, the government has now turned on taxes. So the government wants to tax
05:04literally everything so as to raise money to pay the debt, to pay for laws that are
05:14that are already matured, that were utilized in the previous regime and that is where the problem
05:20is. So some of the actual components of the bill include taxes on bread. There was a proposal
05:33that bread would be taxed. Of course in the process of these,
05:39I mean last week, somewhere last week, the government said that okay, we are dropping,
05:46we are moving that proposal to tax bread. There was a proposal to tax even diapers
05:54and locally manufactured diapers, what they were calling eco-levy, but after that pressure,
06:04the government said no, we will only apply that eco-levy on imports and not locally
06:11manufactured products. There was even a suggestion to introduce what they were calling
06:18motor vehicle circulation tax, that every person who owns a vehicle would pay this
06:26certain percentage to the state and that would have caused a lot of chaos. We saw even
06:35the insurance coming in and protesting and so it is a huge concoction of issues that are
06:45that are boiling at this point. So the people felt like this is too much,
06:52yeah, you want to raise more taxes, but at the same time, the level of wastage,
07:01you know, Kenyans have no problem with paying taxes. Kenyans have a problem with over-taxation
07:10and misuse of public resources. That is the main issue. I get it, I get it, I get it. Sir,
07:19how do you see the world reaction on the Kenya violence? Are all the angles of this violence
07:24being covered or is there something that the world is actually missing?
07:30I know at the moment, we have had reactions from across the world. We have had reactions from
07:39the United States, we had reactions from the UN, of course, all these people condemning
07:46the excessive use of force and death that has been witnessed in Kenya. Even the African Union
07:55Commission has condemned the use of force. So the biggest concern here is the use of force
08:02and the shooting of protesters who are unarmed. And even before Tuesday, because Tuesday,
08:12it was something else. Of course, they stormed Parliament, what do you expect the police to
08:17retell it? But last week, we had cases of protesters who were unarmed that were shot
08:25dead. So that is also one of the angles that have not been well taken care of. And the kind
08:32of pressure, probably Kenyans want to see more pressure being mounted on Nairobi or President
08:40Duterte to actually rein in and contain the situation and end the mass killing. So what has
08:50not been captured well, of course, is the mass killing and the underlying issues of corruption
08:59and wastage that makes the population or the public angry and infurious about all this.
09:10As you said, it appears that Tuesday, whatever happened in Parliament was some sort of a
09:14catalyst. And after that, the protest erupted all across the country after the capital Nairobi. We
09:19also got reports from other cities too. Sir, Kenya being the US's closest non-NATO ally,
09:28do you think that Kenya's problem is somehow now going to impact Israel-Hamas and the Hezbollah
09:35conflict that is somehow making more headlines nowadays on the television and across the world?
09:43Well, so the situation in Kenya is coming at a time when just two days ago, of course,
09:52the US formally approved Kenya as a non-NATO ally. And what that means is that Kenya now has
10:03a huge recognition in terms of international security matters. And on the Gaza war and the
10:12situation in Gaza, President William Ruto has previously maintained that Kenya supports Israel,
10:22but Kenya does not support the use of military and use of force and mass killing of people
10:29to find a solution. President Ruto believes that military cannot be used to find a solution in
10:37Gaza. Also, the Kenyan administration believes in a two-state solution. So when all this is happening
10:49and Kenya's status has just been elevated, it also paints the president of Kenya in bad light.
10:58And even to complicate matters more, it is the issue of Haiti. We are experiencing
11:08riots and Kenya at a time when Kenya is actually deploying police to Haiti to contain the situation
11:19in the Caribbean nation. So look at the IOP here. We have a country that has been elevated
11:27but is battling its own domestic issues and it's in a big mess. So yes, it affects
11:36even the standing of Kenya on some of those international security matters,
11:43like finding solutions in Gaza and even Haiti. And to a large extent, even Ukraine.
11:50Hmm. Definitely, sir. Sir, Ruto came to power in 2022 and actually with a mandate that was not
12:00seen in Kenya for many years. He came with a promise that he would uplift the people out of
12:06the economic crisis and he would lower the economic burden too. That was one of his election promises
12:10too. But sir, in just two years, the people are protesting against him, the people are protesting
12:17against his law. So what do you see, sir? Is the situation slipping out of his hand
12:23or will he make a comeback? Can he turn the tide? So looking at President Ruto, especially
12:32as a politician, you know, he started in the early 90s as a youth, the government of the then
12:40President Daniel Moi. Then he rose to become a member of parliament. The guy was so ambitious.
12:47Yeah, he became, he served as a minister in government. Then remember, Ruto served as a
12:52deputy president for 10 years in the past regime. So when he came in, we must also remember that
13:02Ruto came in with a very slight win, victory. It was around 200 votes, 200,000 votes, and it was
13:12contested up to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court upheld. The Supreme Court had to mandate
13:19his victory, if I'm not wrong. Sure. So he's coming to close to two years in office and this
13:30is happening. The president spent a lot of time in his first term, actually, criticizing the previous
13:37regime and blaming the previous regime for the high cost of living, unemployment, and the dwindling
13:44shilling against the US dollar. So as a man who is determined to win a second term, this can be
13:54very devastating and may have far-reaching effects. Give it two years to come when Kenya,
14:00or three years to come when Kenya goes to the polls, because the people, the young generation
14:06that is rioting today and protesting today, they'll probably be the majority voters. You know, they can
14:14rally behind one of them and vow to remove this government in office. So it is
14:25something that the Ruto administration needs to address carefully,
14:32because it is a change of tide. Previously, we've seen all the generations actually
14:39going to the streets. But for the first time in the history of Kenya, we are having a younger,
14:46younger generation going to the streets and just pouring out their anger and venting
14:53against the state. So, sir, this means that he's up for a very daunting task in a few days. Sir,
15:04one last question for you. Where does this situation now puts Rayla Odinga, the opposition
15:09leader? Because we saw that he, today morning, approximately at around 7am here in India, we saw
15:15his letter in which he wrote that the people of the children of Kenya are being attacked by William
15:21Ruto's government. So do you believe that this can also catalyze for Rayla Odinga's rise? And
15:30do you see a change coming in the country in the next few years? What's your take on this?
15:34So, Rayla Odinga finds himself in a catch-22 situation. So, this is a man with a rich history
15:45when it comes to Kenyan politics. So, he served as prime minister. He's a veteran in his late 70s.
15:56So, even there are those who believe that he's still young enough to actually vie
16:02in the coming elections. Of course, he'll be approaching 80. So, Odinga is eyeing the African
16:12Union Commission chairperson position. The government of President William Ruto has agreed
16:21to support his candidature. The government has unleashed state machinery to campaign for Mr
16:28Odinga so that he secures this coveted, so to speak, slot. But now, with the protests in Nairobi,
16:39Odinga is caught in between supporting Ruto, who is fighting for his AU position,
16:48and at the same time, standing with the majority, with the people, and condemning
16:55and criticizing the government. So, if you look at Odinga's letters and even
17:01positioning, he's not the Odinga, the vibrant Odinga that we had maybe five years ago.
17:09He has turned, even in terms of how he's criticizing the government and what have you.
17:16So, Odinga is likely to go to the African Union Commission chair. He's likely to get that,
17:24although there is still competition. And that is the biggest prayer and hope for Ruto,
17:34that Odinga settles for that position, gets that position, and becomes busy. Because again,
17:42the position limits Odinga from engaging actively in local politics. So, that will leave room
17:50probably for the president, the incumbent, to have what he may see as an easy raid
17:58to recapture the position. But in terms of change, what you've asked about seeing change
18:06around the corner, I think moving forward, the change we're likely to see is the younger
18:15generation being involved more and more in matters of governance and leadership. Because
18:22for a long time, the youth have been left on the periphery, and most of their issues have been
18:30represented by people in their 70s and their 60s. But as things appear at the moment, we're
18:38likely to see more and more dialogue that revolves around the younger population,
18:45and probably that's the change that we are likely to witness in the coming days.
18:53Mr. Asika, a very big thank you, and I appreciate your time for giving us
18:59such a special time to us for this interview. And I think no one could have explained the
19:04situation better to us, to understand the Kenyan politics, to understand everything that is
19:09happening in Kenya right now. We were very curious, and once again, that's why I appreciate
19:13that you gave this precious time to us for this interview. Thanks a lot, and anytime I'm available,
19:22you can always reach out for updates on the situation in Nairobi, that's fairly peaceful
19:29and calm. And welcome to Nairobi. Yes, of course, when I get time, I'll definitely visit
19:35that country. I've heard it's very beautiful. We hope for your safety, sir. And we also hope that
19:41Kenya comes out of this problem very soon, as soon as possible. A big, big thank you,
19:47sir, for this interview. Thank you very much. Thank you.