The protests in Kenya kicked off in June as pushback against an unpopular Finance Bill. They have since morphed into a countrywide awakening to the deep corruption and mismanagement plaguing the country across all sectors. As we come to the end of a second month of protests, two things have become clear – Kenyans are serious about their grievances and tired of a corrupt and incompetent government, and the crisis of the Kenyan old guard is one of imagination, especially for its youth.
The protests have been dubbed the Gen Z protests, and there is a truth to it in that young Kenyans are at the forefront. However, just because Kenyan youth are at the forefront doesn’t mean that it’s exclusively a Gen Z protest. The push to make it seem like it’s a particular generation of Kenyans protesting, and painting them as naughty children that just need a good talking to, has been a lack of goodwill tactic that refuses to face the fact that this is a “Generation Zote” protest against poor governance. Also, even if it was exclusively a Gen Z protest, that’s still a huge part of Kenya’s citizenry that deserves a serious listening ear from their government, and not the paternalistic and violent response they’ve received.
As the rest of the world is getting older, Africa is getting younger. Kenya is a youthful country with 80% of the population under the age of 35, and with a median age of 19. You wouldn’t believe that is the case when you listen to the policies in place for what is essentially the majority of the country. President Ruto has repeated the same talking points in almost every speech since the protests started – the plans for Kenyan youth boil down to digital hubs and exporting of labour.
A look at the digital hubs and it’s exploitative jobs that barely pay a living wage. A look at the exporting labour program and it’s exploitative jobs that barely pay a living wage but in foreign countries. The President and various government officials have echoed the sentiment that the youth are a ticking time bomb that needs to be dealt with. So they recognize the pressure of a young population with a real need for opportunities, but they just aren’t willing to come up with real strategies that improve the country and empower them. They literally can’t imagine any better future for this country beyond brain drain.
The most interesting part of the protests has been the insistence by the government that Kenyan youth who are protesting are unpatriotic. It’s truly baffling because if there’s anyone that loves their country, it’s the young people calling for a better country for all. They’re proud to call Kenya home and the Kenyan flag has been a symbol of this sentiment. Unlike those in government whose idea of a “flex” is wearing foreign designers, taking their kids to school abroad and hoarding their money in offshore accounts, young Kenyans want to “flex” over their country and are willing to put in the work to build it, given the chance.
With the joke that the Kenyan opposition is Kenyans online basically being confirmed by the failure of Raila and his ODM Party to rally with protesting Kenyans, it has become clear that our definitions of a stable country greatly differ. Ruto, Raila and their supporters seem to believe that what will save Kenya and quell the protests is a “broad based government”, which is a polite way of saying a government centred around tribal platitudes. They believe that the unrest has been because the government, especially the cabinet, has not been representative enough, and that we need to amend the constitution, and have completely missed the point that the protests were against government excesses and incompetence.
Kenyans, especially Kenyan youth, are having to suffer through a deep lack of imagination from their government and its supporters. They can’t imagine people are protesting legitimately without being paid because they have to pay people to show up for their rallies. They can’t imagine that Kenyans love their country because they don’t love their country and are more than happy to plunder it, leave it underdeveloped and invest abroad. They can’t imagine that young Kenyans want to live in their country and build it, because their biggest excitement is to go and gallivant abroad. They can’t imagine that Kenyans want non-corrupt, competent leadership not centred on tribe, because their idea of leadership is tribal kingpins. They can’t believe that tribeless, leaderless, partyless is a real thing because politics is an “eating” game for them.
How are we to move forward with a leadership that is disconnected from those they’re meant to lead? How can we build a prosperous country with politicians who believe they are bigger than their country and cannot imagine resigning when it is evident they’ve lost the goodwill of the people? How can we have a country that works for all when corruption is the order of the day and those involved are loud and arrogant about it? How can we enjoy justice and equality when the government will not implement the constitution, police do not respect the rule of law and courts are being used to punish protestors and basically anyone that speaks out against the government?
How can we be active citizens when our complaints and contributions aren’t considered or taken seriously? How can we have confidence in our representatives when they don’t listen to us, mock us and swear fealty to the president over the people they’re meant to represent? How do we speak truth to power when the media is complicit in power games and social media spaces are polluted with paid bloggers and propaganda? How can we trust a government that works against its own people and then actively deceives them? How can we have faith in a cabinet that is full of millionaires whose wealth makes no sense? How can young people support a government that has no solid plans for them and which treats their concerns as a petty annoyance and views them as only good for manual labour and handouts?
The #RutoMustGo campaign is not just about Ruto the individual, but what he represents – the old guard of Kenyan politics that runs on tribalism, corruption and violence. And that includes all the opportunists that keep cropping up believing they can hijack this movement, including the Gachaguas, Wanjigis, Matiang’is and Railas. They have no new ideas and are employing old and tired tactics. They have nothing to offer the new Kenya these protests are hoping to bring about. They have nothing to offer young Kenyans who are fighting for their future. They too are part of the old guard whose imagination is too limited to believe there’s a promised land, let alone that they can lead us to it.
