President William Ruto has delivered a message of assurance regarding the tragic events surrounding the recent protests that occurred on Tuesday, June 25, 2024.
During his address his national address on June 26, 2024, Ruto said he plans to engage the young people and hold a stakeholder engagement meeting in the coming days to implement various austerity measures.
“As I committed on Sunday, I propose an engagement with young people of our nation to listen to their issues and agree with them on their priority areas of concern.”
“I also propose that within the next 14 days, a multi-sectoral, multistakeholder engagement be held to chart the way forward on matters relating to the content of the bill as well as auxiliary issues raised in recent days on the need for austerity measures and strengthening our fight against corruption,” Ruto’s statement read in part.
Additionally, Ruto affirmed the existence of a structured framework to ensure accountability for those who lost their lives during the demonstrations.
“Six people yesterday lost their lives, very unfortunately and they shouldn’t have, and I have said it is a very unfortunate situation, I wish it would not have happened. There’s a framework that will ensure that those 6 Kenyans will be accounted for.” Ruto remarked.
Ruto further disclosed that protestors who were taken into custody were being held safely by the police and would be released once they were cleared of any accusations.
“Secondly, I promised the country that there will be no extra judicial killings going forward and since I came to office there hasn’t been one incident of the killing. Statements that were attributed to civil society groups and all people that were mentioned have since been found in police custody and those that were already processed were already released.” Ruto stated.
In response to Kenyan pressure after several protests, President Ruto declined to sign the Finance Bill, 2024 into law.
“Consequently, having reflected on the continuing conversation around the content of the finance bill of 2024, I will decline to assent to the bill,” Ruto said.
The Head of State acknowledged widespread dissatisfaction with the bill as passed, which resulted in lives lost, property destroyed and constitutional institutions desecrated after the bill was passed.
“Following the passage of the bill, the country witnessed widespread expression of dissatisfaction with the bill as passed, regrettably resulting in the loss of life, destruction of property and desecration of constitutional institutions. I send condolences to the families of those who lost their loved ones in this unfortunate manner,” Ruto added.
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