William Ruto says Gen z protesters who burnt parliament to be hunted down: "Hawawezi Kuhepa"

• President William Ruto has put on notice the invaders of the National Assembly in the heat of the anti-finance bill protests
• The protesters burnt a section of the legislature buildings and also damaged the installations therein
• Ruto revealed on Saturday that the state had embarked on a crackdown to bring the culprits to justice

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Nairobi: President William Ruto has ultimately commented on the recent parliament breach by a section of the anti-finance bill protesters.

President William Ruto addressing religious leaders at State House, Nairobi. Photo: William Ruto. Source: Facebook

The mass action protests that started on June 18 climaxed with the unprecedented invasion of parliament on June 25.

The invaders vandalised installations in the legislature precincts; they shattered windows, damaged tables with others stealing wares, such as the sergeant-at-arms uniform, cutlery and parliament's dummy mace.

What is Ruto's take on parliament breach?

Ruto said the actors were criminals and not protesters, as they had initially carried themselves.

He declared that the state would hunt them down and bring them to justice.

Also on the state's radar are those who stormed businesses and looted the wares stocked for sale.

The president spoke on Saturday, June 25, at State House Nairobi where he met religious leaders.

"The protests were infiltrated by other people. Those who burnt parliament are not these children; they were criminals. We are going to look for them because you can't destroy public property and escape. We will engage our youths but we will also deal with the criminals in accordance with the law.

How does destroying and looting property help solve the issues we have. We must separate the issues our youths are raising and the criminality for those looting property and destroying public property," said Ruto.

Ruto's intervention to prevent future protests

At the same time, Ruto restated his resolve to engage the youths and deliberate on the issues that triggered the recent protests.

He underscored his commitment to realising the goal by involving multi-sectoral players among them the clergymen.

"The government has deliberate programmes and policies to create job and income opportunities for our young people. These include the Affordable Housing Programme, digital jobs, labour migration and industrialisation through county aggregation and industrial parks and special economic zones.

The proposed youth and multi-sectoral forums will give the youth and other stakeholders a platform to discuss these and other national economic challenges that face our country," Ruto said.

Why did Ruto reject Finance Bill 2024?

The president conceded to the pressure by the young population which had camped in the streets across the country to oppose the Finance Bill 2024.

They argued that its taxation clauses were draconian.

The highlight of the finance bill hysteria was Ruto announcing its withdrawal.

In a televised address to Kenyans on June 26, Ruto stated he was considerate of the concerns of the citizenry and consulted the lawmakers in his faction before realising his decision.

He sent the bill back to the National Assembly for the deletion of all clauses.

He said he would engage relevant stakeholders in refurbishing the bill's contents, which had attracted massive resistance from Kenyans.

The president, at the same time, noted corruption was depriving the government of revenue and thus stated his resolve to arrest the vice as he sought to close the revenue shortfalls following the withdrawal of the bill.

Ruto also sanctioned the observation of the austerity measures and budget cuts for the government, calling for the reduction in the expenditures in the National Executive and other arms of the state.

Besides, he expressed readiness to engage the Kenyan young population that engineered the mass action protests to reject the bill believed to bear oppressive taxation measures.

The measures sought to raise over KSh 340 billion, part of which the president said would be channelled toward servicing the public debt.

Ordinarily, the president had until June 30 to assent to the bill to make it the new finance law, which would be in force in the 2024/25 fiscal year.