Kenyan President William Ruto has fired his entire cabinet except the foreign minister, giving in to pressure from protests that have led to the biggest crisis of his two-year presidency.
Youth-led protests against planned tax increases began peacefully but turned violent, with at least 39 people killed in clashes with police last month.
Some protesters briefly stormed Parliament before Ruto repealed the new taxes.
“I will immediately hold comprehensive consultations among different sectors and political formations and other Kenyans in the public and private sectors with a view to forming a broad-based government,” Ruto said in a televised address, adding that he would announce further measures later.
He also fired the Attorney General, but said the office of the Vice President would not be affected.
The sweeping cabinet reshuffles are exactly what Kenyans have been demanding, veteran anti-corruption activist John Githongo told Reuters.
“Let’s see what happens now when the new ministers deal with the big problems of corruption, the arrogance and excesses of their government and the fact that so many Kenyans died in the demonstrations,” he said.
“Hopefully this should calm the situation down temporarily.”
Ruto is torn between demands from lenders such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to reduce budget deficits and the hard-pressed population suffering from rising living costs.
Last week, he proposed spending cuts and additional borrowing in roughly equal amounts to plug the nearly US$2.7 billion (AU$4.0 billion) budget hole created by the reversal of the tax increases.
Analysts have said the tax cut will likely cause Kenya to miss IMF targets, even though the government has no debts due.
A budget deficit of 4.6 percent of gross domestic product is expected for the fiscal year beginning on July 1.
Ojango Omondi, a community activist with the Social Justice Centres Task Force in Nairobi, said the sacking of so many cabinet ministers was a “step towards justice” but activists would like to see who Ruto appoints in their place.
“Rejecting that is one thing. The second is to ensure that the people who are elected to the cabinet are committed to the constitution and the rule of law,” Omondi said.