Asked about the mood on the streets of Kenya this week, Auma Obama said, “I think it can be expressed with one word—and that’s rage.”
Obama, who runs the Sauti Kuu Foundation, a charity aiding impoverished youth in Kenya, has been actively participating in protests against tax hikes in the country.
She is also the half-sister of former U.S. president Barack Obama. On Tuesday, while in the streets of Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, she was tear-gassed halfway through a CNN interview.
“All I did was walk peacefully and get tear-gassed,” Obama told “As It Happens” host Nil Koksal. “And it happened to be on air with a camera.”
This incident, she says, is just one example of the violent and deadly crackdown on protesters. She believes this is why demonstrations have continued even after Kenyan President William Ruto withdrew the tax bill that initially sparked the protests.
“When they demonstrate, they are now being beaten by the police, they’re being tear-gassed, they’re being shot at,” she said. “So how are the young people going to trust you?”
The protests began on Tuesday in opposition to a bill that would have raised taxes on internet data, fuel, bank transfers, bread, diapers, and more to address the country’s national debt and secure more international financing.
Despite Ruto withdrawing the bill in a televised address on Wednesday, the protests have only decreased in size but have not ceased.
On Thursday, people in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu, and other cities continued to march in the streets, calling for Ruto to step down.
