‘This movement wasn’t led by one person; it was collective and organic…’ Bill Omondi and Beverly Wakiaga reflect on last year’s protests to offer some thought on how INGOs and progressive organisations can show real solidarity.
It started, as many things often do, online. A flurry of tweets reacting to the 2024 Finance Bill that had recently been tabled. The Bill, a yearly budget proposal by the Cabinet Secretary of National Treasury and Planning, proposed a 16% value-added tax on bread, an excise duty on vegetable oil, and an eco levy to curb pollution that would also affect the manufacturing of diapers, batteries, and other materials.
In 2023, the Finance Bill also contained a number of proposals that increased taxes for the everyday Kenyan, while the cost of living increased. Despite robust public participation urging for the Bill to be reconsidered, MPs passed it. This increased the vigilance and tactics used by Kenyans to ensure that their views on the 2024 Finance Bill were taken into account.
First were “Salaamz”: calls, texts and WhatsApp messages to MPs. Then came the civic education videos in various Kenyan languages, raising awareness of the Bill and ensuring people showed up for the tabled public participation meetings in their counties. Still, MPs voted yes for the bill.
With no chance of getting a listening ear from MPs, some who took to the internet to flaunt their wealth in response, Kenyans took to the streets to demonstrate on three different days before the final demonstration on the 25th of June. These protests were a chance for the government and multilateral institutions to listen to the grievances of people; instead, they ended with at least 50 people killed, 26 people missing to date, the abduction of protestors deemed to be organisers, and a diminishing of trust between the government and the people.
While provisions of the bill later ultimately went against the goals of the demonstrations, the movement built by Kenyans is inspiring and offers three key lessons for INGOs and multilateral institutions who want to work with communities and grassroots movements to bring social change.
1. The importance of genuine listening
A common refrain during the protests or online awareness raising was, “What exactly do the protesters want?”, and yet the posts under the #RejectFinanceBill2024 hashtag and numerous spaces convened on X, shared how Kenyans were faring under the previous Finance Bill and set out precisely why they wanted MPs to vote against it.
Active listening is often seen as a skill that only individuals must take up, but governments, INGOs, and multilateral institutions also need to listen to understand rather than listening to respond or listening for the sake of appearing as though they have listened.
As organisations move towards decolonial and locally-led approaches of working, it is important that they are not simply listening to appear at the forefront of change. But they are actually listening and understanding what the various communities they work with want.
At the protests, instead of listening, active citizens were met with teargas, trips to jail cells, enforced disappearances, and more – simply for asking for a Finance Bill that took into account the global cost of living crisis, the impact of policies cutting public services while raising taxes, and the unfair debt burden on African countries.
2. There is nothing like organic and collective moments. Connect with and support them
This movement wasn’t led by one person; it was collective and organic. Faced with indifference from those in power, people built power with each other. The movement demonstrated that whether your contribution was financial, legal knowledge, language, feeding people or showing up on the street, we all had a part to play.
As salaamz to MPs went unanswered or dismissed, we turned to each other not out of convenience, but necessity. In cities and towns, online and offline spaces, young people organized, informed, and protected one another. Medics showed up at protests and set up makeshift medical tents with supplies. Content creators translated the Finance Bill into different Kenyan languages for ease of accessibility and understanding. Tech gurus created systems to break down the Bill, lawyers mobilized and responded to arrests, and Kenyans from all walks of life raised funds to bail out protesters, cover medical bills, and support funeral costs.
Such organic and collective movements need to be amplified and supported. Statements sharing ‘strong condemnation’ and ‘deep concern’ are not enough. As movements and people power take their rightful places at the forefront of making change, INGOS and other organisations must ask themselves, how can we make our solidarity more impactful? Whether through financing, amplifying, advocating, taking on risks of smaller partners, joining in the marches, sharing knowledge or simply building connections between issues and various movements.
3. Don’t forget to build hope
It is very easy to lose hope. You can lose it standing across a battalion of armed police officers ready to launch teargas or bullets in your direction, hearing of the killings and abductions of fellow protestors, and watching leaders dismiss your concerns and label you “treasonous“. It serves the ambitions of those who don’t benefit from the change we seek that we lose hope and see our problems as insurmountable. Hope is like fire, and it must be stoked and tended to daily to keep the spirit and fight of movements.
In the non-profit sector, it can be difficult to portray a hopeful picture when the things we are advocating for are being met with constant roadblocks. As activist and prison abolitionist, Mariame Kaba says, ‘Hope is a discipline and we have to practice it every single day,’. As well as highlighting problems and challenges, INGOs, we must find a way to build on that hope. There are wins, gains, and small victories that we can share and celebrate that connect to the bigger picture of what we are trying to achieve.
They say the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. That vigilance demands real and constant work: the work of listening, acting in solidarity with each other, and believing that one day we will live in a world that works for all of us.
Author
Author
