As Kenyan troops landed in Haiti with U.S. and multinational backing on June 25, protests exploded in Nairobi as young people rose up against an unpopular national finance bill that would impose further taxes on the Kenyan population in order to pay down the country’s extraordinary foreign debt obligations.
It is estimated that in the first 2 weeks of the uprisings in Nairobi, 40 civilians were killed by Kenyan forces as the police violently suppressed the protests.
Meanwhile, this week, a second UN-backed contingent of Kenyan police arrived in Haiti. In the coming months, thousands of additional military personnel will arrive to the country from the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Benin, Chad and Jamaica.
According to reporting by our guest today, Widlore Mérancourt, editor-in-chief of the independent Haitian Creole-French-English news organization AyiboPost, the Kenyan population widely condemns the deployment of Kenyan police forces to Haiti. We discuss the widespread political unrest in Haiti as its government struggles to maintain power against the network of gangs that took control of 80 percent of the capital Port-au-prince, according to U.N. estimates.
Check out the website for AyiboPost: https://ayibopost.com/
In Oakland, homeless residents at Toll Beach Plaza pursued a legal strategy using support from the Americans with Disabilities Act to delay a city-led eviction plan, but a federal judge has allowed Oakland to move forward with the eviction despite lawyers saying that the encampment with violate the residents’ rights. Our guest is Andrea Henson, a civil rights attorney for the plaintiffs in this case.
Reporters at the independent UC Berkeley student newspaper, the Daily Californian tell KPFA that they decided to resign over decisions their editors made on stories concerning the genocide in Palestine. Former Deputy Editor Kiana Sezawar Keshavarz says the controversy was sparked over concerns she raised over the Daily Cal’s use of the Associated Press’s “Israel-Hamas Topical Guide,” which is no longer available online.
The Daily Californian did not respond to our requests for comment.
This week’s Resistance in Residence artist is Bay Area Nicaraguan emcee, and the frontman of the hip hop Cumbia group Bang Data, Deuce Eclipse.
Follow Deuce Eclipse on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deuceeclipse/
Check out Deuce Eclipse’s website: https://www.deuceeclipse.com/
Check out Bang Data’s website: https://www.bangdata.com/
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