The lessons of Africa’s tax revolts

The art of government is to make two-thirds of a nation pay all it possibly can for the benefit of the other third, Voltaire is supposed to have quipped in ancien régime France. That was a fine idea until revolutionaries started lopping off aristocrats’ heads. Kenyan protesters have not gone that far, but their “Gen Z” movement has rattled the country’s complacent rulers. What began as indignation at tax rises has turned into a popular campaign against corruption and misgovernance.