Kenya's President Wiliiam Ruto speaks during a press conference at State House in Nairobi on July 4, 2024. Photo by Tony Karumba/AFP via Getty Images.
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Code Red for Ruto
Kenya's President William Ruto has dismissed almost the entirety of his cabinet in the aftermath of protests against a now-withdrawn finance bill, which resulted in the death of 39 protestors. As a result, Ruto has begun implementing a series of austerity measures to close an almost $2.7 billion budget hole that the withdrawn finance bill sought to fix, including dissolving 47 government offices and reducing the number of government advisers by 50 percent. The protests expanded into wider anti-government and anti-corruption protests in the following days, with the hashtag "Ruto must go" trending in the immediate aftermath.