Image: COURTESY
President William Ruto finally bowed to pressure and said he would not sign the Finance Bill 2024.
This statement came as a major relief to Kenyans and a reason to celebrate since our cries have been heard and our efforts were not in vain.
The president said the people have spoken.
"Listening keenly to the people of Kenya who have said loudly that they want nothing to do with this Finance Bill 2024, I concede and therefore I will not sign the 2024 Finance Bill and it shall subsequently be withdrawn," he said.
The withdrawal of the finance bill has shown the power of people's voices and people ought to celebrate this big win since it has shown the government that whatever they do its citizens are closely watching and are ready to speak up against any kind of misconduct.
Some citizens took this conversation on X challenging their fellow countrymen to stop focusing more on Occupy State House protests which were planned for today and rather they should celebrate that their main motive of rejecting the finance bill has been met after the president withdrew it.
“ I hate that we did not celebrate the win today. We won in a major way, such a big stride towards democracy. But just like the peaceful protest was hijacked by looters so is the spirit of this protest being hijacked by hate and bitterness. The people protested because of how burdensome the bill was going to be. The welfare and prosperity of the people is first and foremost," a netizen wrote.
“Help me understand how tomorrow's agenda-less protest will create the sort of environment in Kenya that allows prosperity. Personally, I think a protest tomorrow will weaken our position because now we are not using our brains but reacting emotionally."
The netizen then went further and said that targeted-based protests get better results than those that don't have a target so he termed today's protest as not having any targets to protest about.
Therefore he said that people should only go to the streets if they are going to celebrate their wins for successfully bringing the finance bill down.
Through this statement, a lot of netizens backed him up and said they actually have a reason to celebrate since the power of the people has finally been recognized.
However, some of the netizens still said that there is still a reason for going to the street since our silence will be seen as a weakness or rather agreeing with what the government wants to do to increase the burden of the economy.
