Mass protests rocking Kenya in the past month have once again laid bare the predatory lending practices of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Placards read “IMF keep your hands off Kenya,” and “We ain't IMF bitches”, calling on President William Ruto to withdraw an IMF-driven finance bill set to ramp up austerity and regressive taxes.
Founded 80 years ago this week as 730 delegates from 44 ‘allied countries’ wrapped up the Bretton Woods Conference in the UK, the IMF was supposed to encourage collaboration and growth in all post-war economies.
But of course, the world in 1944 looked very differently from how it does today – and so what emerged was a financial system with a particular vantage point, where the interests of the US and colonial powers were prioritised at the expense of developing nations.
