Kenya|The Kenyan president will not sign the bill, which has been opposed by protests.
Tax increases the bill contained is withdrawn, said the Kenyan president William Ruto at a news conference on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, more than 20 people were killed and 300 injured in protests against tax increases, said a Kenyan government-funded human rights organization. Most of the deaths occurred in the capital, Nairobi.
According to Ruto, he will not sign the bill.
“The people have spoken,” he said.
Terrestrial On Tuesday, the army and police clashed with protesters in Nairobi after they stormed the parliament building.
A Nairobi hospital representative said on Wednesday that two hundred people are being treated there, some with bullet injuries.
The demonstrations, led mainly by young people and students, started last week. The protests were fueled by the high cost of living in the country.
Ruto’s cash-strapped government had said tax increases were needed because of the country’s massive debt of about $78 billion. The amount corresponds to about 70 percent of Kenya’s gross domestic product.
The plague said withdrawing the bill would mean a significant shortfall in funding for development programs designed to help farmers and teachers, among others, as Kenya struggles to reduce its foreign debt burden.
The mostly peaceful protests turned violent on Tuesday as lawmakers passed the bill and police fired shots into the crowd that stormed the parliament complex, which was partially engulfed in flames.
Although Kenya is one of the most dynamic economies in East Africa, a third of the country’s 52 million people live in poverty.
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