Hempstone Monari’s taxi business was just getting going when the wheels fell off his financial future and a Kenyan bank auctioned off his car over the non-payment of a $9,900 loan.
“They took my car even though business was slow,” the 29-year-old told AFP, his eyes red from tear gas and several days’ stubble on his chin under an orange cloth mask.
Now unemployed and struggling to feed his family of three, he joined hundreds of pro-opposition demonstrators on Monday in the capital Nairobi to protest the high cost of living in Kenya.
“Life has become difficult”, he said, as police and demonstrators exchanged volleys of tear gas and rocks.
“Are we the poor children of a lesser God?”
An economic and political powerhouse in East Africa, Kenya has seen a slew of ambitious infrastructure projects take off in recent years — but problems are festering beneath the ritzy facade.
Inflation hit 9.2 percent in February, according to the latest government figures.
A record drought has left millions hungry, with a sixth rainy season between March and May forecast to fail.
The country’s currency, the Kenyan shilling, has sunk to historic lows, losing nearly four percent of its value against the dollar in the past month alone, according to the think tank Oxford Economics Africa.
Although the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine have contributed to the crisis, protesters like Monari believe their government could do much more to ease their pain.
They are now set to stage demonstrations twice a week, throwing down a major challenge to President William Ruto’s administration, six months after he took office.
Monday’s protest proved costly, with Nairobi losing more than half its daily revenue as people kept away from the central business district, the city’s governor Johnson Sakaja said.
Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua said the demonstrations cost Kenya $15 million.
Ruto, a young ambitious leader, campaigned relentlessly for the August election on a promise to revive the economy and put money in the pockets of the downtrodden.
But his decision to remove subsidies for fuel and maize flour — a dietary staple — has sparked anger and incomprehension.
“Honestly, we don’t know what tomorrow or next week or next month will look like,” Jane Chege, 33, told AFP.
Her electronics shop has seen revenues slump by more than half in the past six months.—AFP
