The demonstrations have been as deadly as they have been dramatic. At least 23 people have died in the past week amid nationwide protests in Kenya against government plans to increase taxes. Faced with such fury, the government of President Ruto has been forced to withdraw a finance bill that proposed a series of tax rises on necessities including cooking oil, napkins and energy worth $2.3 billion. But the focus has not been solely on the government in Nairobi.

As it celebrates 80 years since its founding, the International Monetary Fund has been thrown into a reputational crisis. Kenyan protestors have honed in on the fund’s role in demanding measures to stabilise the country’s public finances. Public unrest didn’t merely arrive on its doorstep; demonstrators