The trail of destruction following Tuesday's Finance Bill, 2024 protests was laid bare on Wednesday revealing the magnitude of losses borne by businesses, after protests took a violent turn and ended in the torching of property and looting from shops.
From Kenyatta Avenue where the Uganda House building was burnt down with its entire ground floor completely obliterated, supermarkets that were heavily pillaged across different towns, to dozens of electronics shops across more than 10 streets within the Nairobi Central Business District (CBD) that were broken into and phones, television sets and other items stolen, it became apparent that the Tuesday protests have left behind losses in the hundreds of millions of shillings.
At least three supermarkets within the Nairobi CBD- Naivas Moi Avenue near Railways station, Quickmart outlet along Mfangano Street and neighbouring Eastmatt supermarket- were broken into and goods worth millions of shillings carted away.
The supermarkets remained shut on Wednesday, with a lorry seen outside the Quickmart outlet evacuating bulky goods that were left by looters, apparently for being too heavy to carry.
Neighbouring the supermarkets, restaurants, shops selling different products, stalls operated by phone sellers and fast food joints bore the brunt of violent protests, with their windows broken and stock stolen.
Walking around major streets occupied by protestors in Nairobi on Tuesday- Kenyatta, Haile Selassie and Moi avenues, Kimathi, Ronald Ngala and Tom Mboya streets, City Hall Way- it was all but a trail of broken windows where shops have been operating different businesses, and patches of pink on the walls and roads, left behind by water the police used to disperse protestors and put off fires when things got out of hand.
“This has caused a lot of impact on businesses because even here, while my shop was not broken into, I have not had any client today. We all closed down yesterday because of the protests, as we did on Thursday last week and it will get very difficult to meet our bills with this uncertainty,” said Ms Gladys Theuri, who operates a boutique along Moi Avenue.
In the apparent outcome of the wave of destruction, businesspersons and bodies representing them, on Wednesday, came out yet again to voice their concerns, all calling for peaceful talks and asking the President not to assent to the Finance Bill which he later did.
“KAM acknowledges the public participation on the Finance Bill 2024. However, we are concerned by the violence during protests leading to loss of lives and destruction of property,” the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) Board said on Wednesday.
KAM called for peaceful talks over the contentious Finance Bill debate that on Tuesday caused protests across 35 counties, as the Central Organisation of Trade Unions (Cotu) called for the formation of a committee to engage the youth.
“On behalf of Kenyan workers some of whom cannot access their places, we are appealing to the President to suspend assenting to the Finance Bill and appoint a committee of inquiry to inquire into the demands the Gen Zs, millennials and other Kenyans are making,” said Cotu Secretary-General Francis Atwoli.
The Kenya Private Sector Alliance (Kepsa) said Kenyans seek a “balanced Finance Act that reflects their needs while enabling the government to operate within the confines of Public Finance Management requirements.”
