In mid-June, tens of thousands of predominately young people took to the streets across Kenya. The focus of what commentators have dubbed the Gen Z–led revolt — which has now entered its sixth week and spanned at least twenty-three of Kenya’s forty-seven counties including the capital Nairobi, Kisumu, Nakuru, and Mombasa — was a controversial finance bill that would have raised taxes on a range of basic goods, exacerbating an already existing cost-of-living crisis in the country.

As part of the largest-scale direct challenge to the Kenyan state in decades, protesters stormed Parliament, triggering a brutal police crackdown that has left over fifty dead and hundreds injured. President William Ruto was forced to withdraw the controversial bill, originally introduced in response to pressure by the International Monetary Fund to raise two hundred billion Kenya shillings ($1.55 billion) for debt servicing. According to Ruto, sixty-on out of every hundred shillings paid in taxes goes toward outstanding bills.

Just last year, Kenyans took to the streets en masse in response to the skyrocketing costs of food and fuel. During former president Uhuru Kenyatta’s term in office (2013–2022), public debt had more than quadrupled. It now stands at 68 percent of GDP. The introduction of taxes on basic goods — originally pitched to the population as a means to fund schools, hospitals, and other public services — was in reality needed to repay debtors.