Kenyan activists urged protestors to take to the streets again on Tuesday, with many rejecting President William Ruto’s calls for discussion following his decision to drop proposed tax increases.
Last week, demonstrators and police clashed, killing at least 24 people. Parliament was briefly seized and set burned.

The protests, which have been spearheaded by young people and organized primarily through social media, were started by a finance law that aimed to earn 346 billion Kenyan shillings ($2.69 billion) in taxes.

However, many demonstrators’ demands have grown in the last two weeks, including requests to root out corruption and for Ruto to resign, posing the most serious crisis of his two-year leadership.

An interview Ruto delivered to Kenyan media networks on Sunday evening, in which he primarily supported the conduct of the police and his government, seems to have reinforced demonstrators’ stances.

On Monday, activists circulated fliers on social media urging people to seize Nairobi’s Central Business District. Many people used the hashtag #OccupyCBDTuesday.

The protest movement lacks formal leadership, and it was unclear how many people would respond to these appeals after tens of thousands turned out last week in some of the country’s greatest protests in recent memory.

Activists have been considering how to maintain momentum now that the immediate goal of eliminating the finance law has been met.

In his interview on Sunday, Ruto reaffirmed his past demands for discussion with youth. He stated that he was willing to do this in any forum of their choosing, including the X Spaces, where they frequently convene to discuss concerns and strategize.

Many protesters saw attempts for dialogue as an attempt to co-opt the movement.

“You can’t dialogue with someone who is killing you, on the other hand,” one activist remarked during an X Space this weekend.

Ruto defended the police in his interview, claiming that they did their best under the circumstances and blaming “criminals” for hijacking legitimate protests.

Ruto also stated in the interview that the budget deficit created by the removal of proposed tax increases will be filled by borrowing, thus contradicting a previous remark that money would be saved through austerity measures.

When asked about this on Monday, Finance Minister Njuguna Ndung’u stated that borrowing and debt bearing capacity are subject to legislative constraints.

“This means that we need to cut spending. This will be known once Parliament adopts the Supplementary Budget,” he told Reuters via text message.

Kenya’s national debt is already more than 70% of GDP, surpassing the statutory limit of 55%.

After abandoning the bill, Ruto requested that MPs pass a supplementary budget, but parliament is now in recess.