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Kenyan Police Chief Resigns Amid Nationwide Protests Over Tax Hike

09:12, 13 July 2024

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Protests swept Kenya in mid-June after the government unveiled a bill that would impose a 16% VAT rate on bread, sugar transportation, mobile and financial services, and foreign currency transactions, as well as a 2.5% excise tax on cars and vegetable oil.

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Kenya's inspector general of police, Japheth Koome, resigned on Friday amid nationwide protests against tax increases, handing over his duties to Douglas Kanja Kirocho.

"During the brief handing/taking over ceremony ... the outgoing IG Koome expressed his profound gratitude to the National Police Service officers for the support they accorded him while he was in office," the National Police Service said in a statement.

Koome was appointed Inspector General of Police in September 2022. He stepped down a day after President William Ruto dismissed the cabinet and the attorney general in response to mounting protests.