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Bulletins and News Discussion from August 26th to September 1st, 2024 - Ruto Must Go - COTW: Kenya

Image is from this Black Agenda Report article by the Communist Party of Kenya.

In June, large anti-government protests shook Kenya. President Ruto and his parliament were attempting to pass the new Finance Bill 2024, which, among other things, would have hiked taxes on the population, with a 16% sales tax on bread and a 25% duty on cooking oil, as well as new taxes on financial transanctions and vehicle ownership. There would also have been levies on women's sanitary products and digital goods such as phones, among other measures affecting hospitals.

Hundreds of protestors stormed the parliament building and began to tear the place apart. Shortly afterwards, on June 26th, Ruto announced that he was withdrawing the bill, calling the tens of deaths and hundreds of injuries "unfortunate". A couple weeks later, Ruto then fired his entire cabinet (aside from his foreign minister) and communicated his wish to the nation to form a "broad-based government". Funnily enough, in July, it was announced that the majority of positions were to be filled by members of the old cabinet, while other positions were taken by members of the opposition. This has prompted scepticism among the population, including calls to resign, but there haven't (yet) been any major anti-government events to pressure this outcome. The Communist Party of Kenya has been working to get some of their comrades back after they were abducted by the police during the protest period, and have otherwise supported the protests against Ruto.

The measures in the bill were strongly encouraged by the IMF. Kenya's debt is currently around $80 billion, of which about 10% is owed to China for infrastructure projects (such as a railway linking the capital, Nairobi, to the port city of Mombasa, as well as 11,000 kilometers of road throughout the country). The rest is owed to a combination of the US, IMF, World Bank, and Saudi Arabia. More than half of government revenue is going towards repaying the debt - but despite these massive payments, it has only grown. The most recent round of IMF plundering (and the impetus for current events) began in 2021, when they offered a 38-month programme to "help" Kenya, which would involve the usual warfare on the poor and the dismemberment of any useful societal institutions.

The COTW (Country of the Week) label is designed to spur discussion and debate about a specific country every week in order to help the community gain greater understanding of the domestic situation of often-understudied nations. If you've wanted to talk about the country or share your experiences, but have never found a relevant place to do so, now is your chance! However, don't worry - this is still a general news megathread where you can post about ongoing events from any country.

The Country of the Week is Kenya! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.

Please check out the HexAtlas!

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Last week's thread is here.

1.4K comments

  • Binance complies with Israeli request, seizes Palestinian funds

    Crypto exchange Binance has seized all funds belonging to Palestinians, acting on a request from the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).

    “I have received this from several sources. All Palestinians are affected and judging by the way things are going all Lebanese and Syrians will get the same treatment. Not your keys, not your coins. We are all Palestinians now.”

    Centralized exchanges like Binance are starting to look more like government snitches than safe places to store your crypto. And it gets worse.

    Ray claims that Binance has been leaking info on MENA (Middle East and North Africa) users to the IDF without any legal process—no warrant, no subpoena, just handing it over.

    This seems to be coupled with a sudden outflow of ~$2 billion dollars worth of BTC from Binance today: https://old.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1f2nt6b/binance_just_had_an_outflow_of_44000_bitcoins/

    I find it hard to believe any real hamas would just leave their funds hanging out on a hostile western platform when they can take the funds out. I also find it hard to believe $2 billion would be kept in crypto alone.

    Well, let this serve as a warning to anyone looking to do business with Binance, they're basically a wing of the IOF now.

  • Really strange how liberals seem to believe invading a neighboring country is somehow morally worse than invading a country on the other side of the planet.

  • My 8 weeks old son just spoke his first words. He said "Dad did you see that the Russians have pushed into Sinkovka near Kupiansk, this is interesting because Sinkovka has been the main point of defense for the AFU near Kupiansk, and losing this village combined with the advance near Pishchane could put the entire AFU garrison east of the Oskol River in a very dangerous spot". Thanks son!

    This could be very bad for the AFU though, this sector of the front has been chill for them for nearly two years now. If Russians seriously commit here and exploit the manpower situation just like in Pokrovsk and Toretsk, then the the whole east Oskol sector all the way to Lyman could be in a very bad situation.

    Map:

  • Palestine to apply for BRICS membership after upcoming Kazan summit (Anadolu Ajansi, 26.08.2024)

    Russian state news agency TASS quoted the Palestinian ambassador to Moscow, Abdel Hafiz Nofal, as saying that Palestine will lodge its application for joining BRICS after attending the summit.

    "Russian President Vladimir Putin promised that one session would be fully devoted to Palestine," the Palestinian ambassador said.[...]

    "This invitation means that despite all the crimes, killings and destruction in the Gaza Strip, our message is that Palestine wants to live and to develop," Ambassador Nofal added.

  • A young irish guy i know was telling us how there's a lot of revisionism right now that casts the ira, whom he thinks were entirely drug dealing gangsters, in a positive light.

    Idk how to tell him that some people, at least, have always viewed them in a positive light and his belief that all ira units were drug dealing gangsters is post-troubles liberal revisionism intended to de-emphasize the political nature of the struggle.

    He also seems to have no idea that the unionists were largely run by British Intelligence and committed an overwhelming majortiy of the massacres and civilian killings.

    At a time when Sein Feinn is taking power in Northern Ireland knowing the actual dynamics of the anglo-irish war seems rather important.

  • UK is arresting activists for posts in support of Palestine

    Human rights activist Sarah Wilkinson arrested by UK police | The Cradle

    British human rights activist and social media influencer Sarah Wilkinson was arrested by UK police on 29 August, reportedly over “content she posted online.”

    “The police came to her house just before 7.30am. [Twelve] of them in total, some of them in plain clothes from the counter-terrorism police. They said she was under arrest for ‘content that she has posted online.’ Her house is being raided, and they have seized all her electronic devices," Jack Wilkinson is quoted as saying by the social media account Suppressed News.

  • I guess not wanting to fly over an active war zone is verboten now.

    US legislator accuses Delta, United and American airlines of ‘effectively boycotting’ Israel

    (He's a turncoat millenial Bernie Delegate from south Bronx FFS. I expect that crap from boomers but

    )

    Congressman Ritchie Torres has written to the CEOs of the three airlines to express his concern over their suspension of air travel between the US and Israel.

    “Airlines should be prohibited from effectively boycotting or otherwise discriminating against the world’s only Jewish state,” the Democratic lawmaker wrote in the letter published online.

    “It is one thing to temporarily suspend air travel to Israel on security grounds as defined” by the Federal Aviation Authority, he wrote, “but to unilaterally suspend air travel indefinitely until mid-2025, as American Airlines has done, has the practical effect of a boycott”.

    Torres said all three airlines must restore air travel to Israel “to prevent the appearance and the substance of discrimination against the Jewish state”.

    The three carriers stopped flying to Israel following the Hamas attacks of October 7. Delta has since extended the suspension of its flights to Israel through October 31 while American Airlines has done so until March 29 of next year.

    Meanwhile, United said it has suspended its service for the foreseeable future.

  • relevant quote against the 'no war but class war' purists

    "If tomorrow, Morocco were to declare war on France, India on England, Persia or China on Russia, and so forth, those would be “just” “defensive” wars, irrespective of who attacked first; and every Socialist would sympathise with the victory of the oppressed, dependent, unequal states against the oppressing, slave-owning, predatory “great” powers."

    -Vladimir Lenin

  • So, the US and Canada are angry because AMLO is currently pushing for reforms inside the Judiciary of Mexico. Remember, when the PRI stays 70 years in power, that's democracy. When socdem AMLO wants to reform his country, that is dictatorship.

  • UN has halted operations in Gaza

    Each of the 3 refugee camps in the West Bank that are primary targets for the Isnotreali military, including one in Jenin are also at population densities of 50,000-70,000/km² each.

    (Prediction) Ramallah, being just 60 kilometers south of Jenin, also hosts a South African embassy that is still very much active with South African officials there obviously. Should the Diaper military reach it, the embassy is going to be a prime target, with the Nelson Mandela Square also serving as symbolism in more ways than one. peepeepoopooreal has already spilled South African blood before and prepared to kidnap/assassinate Nelson Mandela's grandson (who's also a sitting member of the NA), so it's not far-fetched that the first post-Apartheid heads of state could be killed. South Africa has also already considered the first "threats to national security" in 30 years.

    I wonder what is the likelihood of South Africa being officially declared an "enemy of the West" because Shitrael says so and the iridescent flag considered a "hate symbol".

    Also lol, lmao even at that one time Isnotreal called South Africa's so-called-hegemony a credible threat as they were banned from the African Union almost 3 years ago.

    If I get arrested for waving the South African flag, I'll frame the citation on my wall when I move back to Johannesburg after getting out of jail.

  • Zelensky says Lula da Silva 'believes Soviet Union narratives' about war.

    The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, said that President Lula (PT) has adopted a “political rhetoric” stance and that he “lives Soviet Union narratives” in relation to the war against Russia.

    Zelensky demanded a more emphatic stance from Lula da Silva who, he said, “thinks of Russia as if the Soviet Union still existed today”. In an interview the politician also said he was grateful for the dialog he had with the Brazilian president in 2023.

    The Ukrainian also criticized the fact that Brazil had signed, alongside China, a proposal for peace negotiations in the conflict. Zelensky claims that the content has no practical effect on resolving the war.

    The President of Ukraine stressed that Brazil is a democracy, unlike the other countries that signed the letter. “Is China a democratic country? No. And what about Iran? Is it a democratic country? No. And what about North Korea? They are not democratic countries. So what is Brazil, a great democratic country, doing in this company? I can't understand this circle of countries. It's normal when you have economic relations, but we're talking about a war, not economic relations,” he said.

    He also referred to what he called the “Chinese plan” as “just a political declaration” restricted to paper, with no concrete effects. “I understand only concrete and honest proposals. I speak for our victims, for our dead. So if you want to help us stop the war, or help us get [Vladimir] Putin to stop the war, we have to unite,” he said, stressing that he intends to present a peace plan to end the war soon.

    Meanwhile Zelensky goes to Saudi Arabi to beg for money and to hangout with their leaders, lol.

  • The Gaza Strip's ~2 million people have been squeezed into an area just below 40 square kilometers on the beaches of Khan Yunis and Deir el-Balah. The population density of the now tent city is approaching 60,000/km², above neighbourhoods immediately east of Constitution Hill by comparison. This is what 60,000/km² "normally" looks like:

    70% of what little water infrastructure exists is in the "no-go zones" according to Al-Jazeera. Per-person water access may well plunge to under 1L/ppd.

    Aid groups such as Islamic Relief South Africa had expressed mounting difficulties in delivering humanitarian relief and are beginning to doubt how long these efforts can be prolonged as the situation continues to worsen - live interview on CII Radio.

    180,000 people have fled the Gaza Strip since October - Salaamedia live

    For people who escape, there is a lingering feeling of "survivors guilt" as expressed by one journalist and her family who recently escaped to Johannesburg - Salaamedia live/Newzroom Afrika

    During the interview above, the host of Salaamedia has indicated she is well aware of genocide supporters brigading comment sections of such broadcasts. Yet for some reason, social media doesn't like it when I send death threats to said yellow-ribbon Nazis

    There is still a live radio station operating in Gaza City - Sahaba Radio FM 99.6

  • Least unhinged zionist take heard today from a Texan "returner"

    Palestine is an ideology so you can't ethnically cleanse them

    If these "people" don't go to jail at the very least there is truly no justice in the world

  • Defeated in the legislative elections, Emmanuel Macron rejects the name suggested by the left-wing front for the post of prime minister. The President will begin a new round of talks with the parties to choose a name to take over the government.

    LFI accuses Emmanuel Macron of plotting a coup and threatens to open impeachment proceedings after the president refuses to appoint the left-wing front's nominee for prime minister. Party called for demonstrations “in defense of democracy in France”.

  • How Israel's Elite Intelligence Unit Targets Queer Palestinians in the West Bank

    While the Israeli government often holds itself up as a beacon of freedom for the LGBT community, members of that very community are high on the list of targets for blackmail—though by no means are they alone on that list. Given the world-class nature of Israeli surveillance technology, it’s not hard for spy agencies to identify gay or lesbian Palestinians and ensnare them in their net.

    Journalist Theia Chatelle spent months in the West Bank hoping to tell their stories. She was told it would be impossible. But over time, she found a number of victims of the program with the courage to speak out. She also identified members of the Israeli security agencies willing to admit to what’s going on.

  • There appears to be a partial sector collapse on the eastern frontlines of Ukraine, with Ukraine losing multiple towns and settlements within a couple of hours. Russia is closing in on Pokvorosk rapidly now. Ukraine retreating across the front. This is after two days of Russian missile attacks in Ukrainian electric and water infrastructure. Overall it looks like the Kursk gamble is starting to backfire in a big way, but more on that below.

    As for the whole Kursk offensive that appears to have stalled, I take a different view to many. It was the best course of action Ukraine could take if they wanted to keep fighting. It's just that the choice to keep fighting is a poor one. Obviously the actual best choice would be to stop the fighting and start negotiations, but Ukraine/their NATO masters are unprepared to do so. So if they continue fighting, and we assume Russia will take more territory in the East, what does it matter if it falls quickly or slowly if it's considered lost anyways? Ukraine (as in from a realistic perspective and not rabid pro Ukraine propaganda) sees that territory as lost anyways, there's nothing they can do to stop the Russian advance or change the reality of the war on that front. So why not take some Russian territory and use it as a buffer to push up with artillery and long range weapons closer to Russia, to continue Ukraine's asymmetric strategy and launch more attacks into Russia, which they did and had some initial success, hitting Russian air bases and destroying some advanced fighter aircraft parked on the ground, as well as destroying many FAB munitions. And hope to hold that territory until autumn or even winter when it will be harder to root them out.

    Overall the Kursk offensive militarily was executed a lot better than the previous Ukrainian "counter offensive", which was a disaster. Ukraine pushed up enough to get their artillery and Anti-Aircraft (AA) platforms in position, but not too far ahead as to walk into Russian traps and defence in depth. Getting the AA in position was critical to ensure that Ukrainian convoys did not get massacred by Russian helicopters and close air support like they did in the "counter offensive". Yes Russia did ambush a few convoys, but nothing like the counter offensive.

    The question though is yes the Kursk offensive was executed well from a military perspective, but does it make sense in the big picture of the war? With the current frontline partial sector collapse, it's not looking good. The best solution big picture wise would be negotiations, there is nothing Ukraine can do to change the reality of the war, unless they plan on getting full NATO support, which is a extremely unrealistic fantasy. Any option that involves the continuation of fighting is a poor option from the Ukrainian perspective. So I would say the Kursk offensive was the best of the bad options, but still a very bad option. Continuing the war as it was and getting ground down by Russia without doing anything to stop the inevitable also appears to be a poor choice.

  • Boycotts due to genocide hit multinationals

    The boycott is having an effect: Multinational companies are coming under greater pressure because of business relationships with or in Israel. As Handelsblatt reported on Wednesday, the catering group Yum Brands, parent company of the restaurant chain KFC, as well as the fast food company McDonald's and food company Mondelez reported problems "as a result of the Middle East conflict". This means significant drops in sales that can be traced back to boycott campaigns in connection with Israel's war against the population in Gaza.

    All three companies reported a drop in sales in their international business. While Yum Brands is being criticized for investing in Israeli start-up companies, McDonald's, for example, distributed free meals to the Israeli army (IDF) in October. System catering operator Americana, which is responsible for the branch presence of KFC and Pizza Hut in the Middle East region, suffered a 45 percent drop in its net profit in the first half of 2024, according to Handelsblatt.

    The Kuwaiti Alshaya Group announced that it would lay off 2,000 employees after a drop in sales as a result of a campaign against the Starbucks branches it operates. In Indonesia, the operator there forestalled a campaign by publicly distancing itself. The McDonald's franchisee donated 100,000 US dollars for humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip. The parent company had bought back more than 200 branches from its partner there after protests against IDF support.

    The Pakistani government set up a committee at the end of July to identify companies that should be boycotted because of their support for Israel in its offensive in the Gaza Strip. Last week, Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced that he would suspend coal exports to Israel "until it ends the genocide." Diplomatic relations have already been severed. According to the Times of Israel, Colombia is currently no longer importing weapons or surveillance technology from Israel.

  • I think it's now fair to call what's happening in Pokrovsk a big collapse for the AFU, perhaps the biggest since the lines stabilised in late 2022. The whole South Donetsk front has completely broken for the AFU, with barely any fighting units left because of the Kursk adventure and there are barely any fortifications at this point. The Ukrainians in true capitalist fashion gave the contracts for digging fortifications to private entities who stole the money and didn't dig anything beyond the areas close to the January 2024 frontline near Avdiivka, so it's now a big problem when the front has moved 35kms further. Everything that moves into the Donbass goes through Pokrovsk and Myrnograd, and Russians are now 7km from Pokrovsk and 1km from Myrnograd. Pokrovsk is also the gateway into Dnipro Oblast, which is the most valuable Oblast for Ukraine with its farmlands and massive Soviet industry. If Pokrovsk falls before the end of 2024, then Russia will basically be in a position where the entirety of Donetsk Oblast falls in 2025, and they can even rush along the E50 and the railroad straight towards Pavlograd by the end of 2025. It's a horrible situation for the AFU in South Donetsk, everything from Pokovsk to Kurakhove to Ugledar is on the verge of collapsing now.

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