Activists support youth in a bid to reject tax law
Members of the civil society in the country have thrown their weight behind the raging anti-government protests by the Gen Z and the Millennials over the Financial Bill, 2024.
In a joint statement yesterday, the civil societies lauded the protesters, saying what they were doing is good for the country, since it’s focused on reclaiming the space for citizens’ sovereignty and agency in the management of public affairs as contemplated in the Constitution.
They argued that Article 1 of the Constitution is explicitly clear that: “all sovereign power belongs to the people of Kenya and shall be exercised only in accordance with the Constitution”.
“However, a cabal of self-interested politicians motivated by their personal interests and without regard for others, and to whom citizens delegated a portion of their sovereign power in the 2022 elections, continue to behave and act as if it’s them who are sovereign and should be served by the citizens, rather than they serving the citizens,” said Suba Churchill, the Executive Director, Kenya National Civil Society Centre.
He maintained that the fact that citizens donate their power periodically to the State, its organs and agencies does not imply that citizens remain powerless thereafter.
Timely manner
“To the contrary, citizens retain enduring power for their own agency should they feel, as they have in a timely manner now, that the State is acting in a manner that negates the letter and spirit of the Constitution,” he added, noting that it is the residual power that citizens have exercised directly through protests and other interventions that Gen Z and other Kenyans have taken collectively lately to campaign against the Finance Bill, 2024.
Suba pointed out that the Kenya Kwanza Alliance administration was now profiling the Gen Z and the Millennials, arresting and holding them secretly without any regards to the rights of arrested persons.
He expressed concern that in those two years into its administration, Kenya Kwanza regime lacked accountability in the management of public affairs with police abuse, brutality and extra-judicial killings continuing normally.
“We would like to remind President William Ruto that in its manifesto, the ruling Kenya Kwanza Alliance committed to, among others work with stakeholders to expand the space for creativity including in the arena of freedom of expression and protection of intellectual property rights,” Suba added, arguing that a feat Gen Z and the Millennials have deployed with unprecedented success in the ongoing anti-tax protests is something that should bring the government into its senses.
The Civil societies are also demanding for the promotion of accountability and openness in the management of public affairs, institutionalizing open governance throughout all state organs and agencies, and publishing an annual State of Openness Report. “Ending police abuse, especially against urban youth, through enhancing police oversight (IPOA and NPSC) and creating an ombudsman to monitor human rights violations,” he added.
The civil societies also called on the ending of all forms of extra-judicial executions by security services, and establishing the Coroner General’s Office as per the National Coroner’s Service Act of 2017.
Special tribunal
They also demanded for the establishment of a Special Tribunal for Gross Human Rights Violations and Enforced Disappearances, including by police and military actors in Northern Kenya.
“We are also calling for the ratification and domestication of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances,” said Suba, arguing further that rather than respect, protect and fulfill the rights of the sovereign citizens to exercise their inherent right to protest as guaranteed under Article 37 of the Constitution and international law, the government has consistently responded to acts of patriotism and active citizenship with the same brutal force reminiscent of the colonial era.
Against this backdrop, the civil societies condemned the high-handedness in which the police officers deploy to manage public assemblies, which Suba noted, continue to criminalize the rights of Kenyans to express themselves in whatever manner they choose to, including street protests, as long as they remain peaceful and unarmed.
