KENYA President William Ruto said yesterday that he won’t sign a finance Bill proposing new taxes into law, a day after protesters stormed parliament and at least 22 people were shot dead.

The government wanted to raise funds to pay off debt, but Kenyans said the Bill would cause more economic pain as millions struggle to get by.

The president now says the Bill caused “widespread dissatisfaction” and he has listened to the people and “conceded.”

"It is necessary for us to have a conversation as a nation on how to do we manage the affairs of the country together,” he said.

The Communist Party of Kenya branded Mr Ruto a “sworn enemy of the Kenyan people” and demanded that he resign over the matter.

“The blood spilled on the streets of Kenya lies squarely in the hands of the IMF [International Monetary Fund], the World Bank, and their local puppets led by President Ruto in Nairobi,” the party said.

“Yesterday’s peaceful anti-government and anti-finance Bill protests saw countless people maimed nearly to death and at least 10 comrades martyred.

“Members of parliament had a chance to avert this crisis by rejecting the IMF-sponsored Bill but chose to side with greed, blaming peaceful protesters instead.
 
“On Thursday the Kenyan masses will take to the streets in peaceful demonstration, as per the Kenyan constitution.

“Despite the state’s promised violence, the unarmed Kenyan people will raise their hands in defiance of the neocolonial project, demanding that Ruto reject the finance Bill.

“They will honour the martyrs and declare their willingness to fight for a dignified Kenya, raising the flag of martyrdom for those who died under the British empire’s savagery, in [former president Daneil Arap] Moi’s dungeons, and in the struggle for the 2010 constitution.”