The Kenyan government has scrapped some tax increases that were initially included in its controversial finance bill after people took to the streets in protest on Tuesday. Among the scrapped tax hikes was a proposed 16% value-added tax on bread, as well as proposed taxes on motor vehicles, vegetable oil and mobile money transfers, according to Kuria Kimani, the chairman of Kenya’s Finance and National Planning Committee.
Kenya’s President William Ruto said in a speech at the State House he was “very happy” that the public had interrogated the proposed finance bill and “recommended through public participation their feelings, their ideas, their suggestions.” “The fact that the executive is working, the legislature is working, the judiciary is working, institutions are working in Kenya, that is a very proud country and I want to belong to Kenya,” Ruto added.