Jul 24. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Kenyan President William Ruto announced on Wednesday the release of those citizens detained in the context of the recent anti-government protests, which arose from a proposed economic reform that the government was forced to withdraw.
Ruto has given a statement to the media in which he has pledged that the government will drop charges against innocent people, although he has said that those suspected of violent acts will be brought to justice and punished. He has also promised to tackle police abuses.
“I am deeply sorry to say that many Kenyans have lost their lives and others have been injured. This is not how our democracy should work. Many people have been arrested and charged with various offences. Charges against innocent people will be dropped,” he said, according to The Nation.
Ruto has also pledged that the government will provide the necessary support to the families who lost their loved ones during the protests. “The livelihoods of innocent people have been destroyed in the last month,” the Kenyan leader lamented.
President Ruto announced a cabinet reshuffle last week and has now appointed four new ministers from the opposition Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), whose appointments are still in the hands of Parliament.
The month-long protests have left more than 50 dead and around 1,200 arrested, and forced Ruto to scrap an economic plan that he had planned to raise up to 346 billion shillings ($2.4 billion) through a significant tax increase.
The unrest has since morphed into a movement, led mainly by youth, demanding a complete overhaul of the way the government has been run. Even though Ruto has bowed to the popular clamour and sacked almost his entire cabinet and the police chief, the protests are calling for his resignation.
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