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As a network of over 300 social movements, organizations and human rights defenders from 80 countries, ESCR-Net (International Network for Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights) is united in our solidarity with the people of Kenya, who have exercised their human rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly, denouncing the punitive Finance Bill, 2024, which the government was ultimately forced to withdraw at the end of June. Their large-scale participation in protests exemplifies a steadfast commitment to upholding economic, social, cultural and environmental rights (ESCER), which are essential to human dignity and social justice.

We are deeply concerned about the deadly protests in Kenya triggered by the introduction of regressive taxes and unjust structural reforms through the Finance Bill 2024. These policies are the result of the IMF imposing conditionalities on loans that continue to reshape economic policies and laws in Kenya and other countries in the Global South and that have disproportionately affected already impoverished and marginalized communities.