A year on from the deadliest protests in a generation, Kenyan families are laying flowers on barbed wire. The image is stark: a mother placing a single rose where her son was shot. These are not scenes from a conflict zone.
They are from the streets of Nairobi and Kisumu, where rising prices and a punitive tax bill lit a fuse. The government’s response was brutal. The death toll stands at over 50.
Now, as the anniversary passes, UK aid partners have issued a statement. They express solidarity with the families. They call for accountability.
But for the woman arranging petals on razor wire, words are not enough. She wants the price of maize meal to fall. She wants her son back.
The protests were about the cost of living. They were about a finance bill that would have hiked VAT on bread and cooking oil. The bill was withdrawn.
But the anger remains. UK charities working on the ground say the root causes have not been addressed. Wages still lag behind inflation.
The shilling is weak. And the government has borrowed heavily from international lenders, with conditions that squeeze public spending. This is the real economy: where a flower on a fence is both a memorial and a protest.
