Kenya has been witnessing protests that were initially triggered by the Finance Bill 2024. The resistance against the Bill was waged under the hashtag #RejectFinanceBill2024. The demonstrations have organically been led by Generation Z or the Zoomers. This is the generation succeeding the Millennials and preceding the Alpha, a generation that has grown with a lot of internet exposure. The generation is largely characterized by the age set from 1996 to early 2010s being the ending years of birth. The generation is largely the children of Generation X (born from 1965 to 1980) or older Millennials (from late 1980s to early 2000s).
Generation Z has grown with access to portable digital technology from an early age, and given that they are digitally literate, they literally run and control what happens online. Majority of them are content creators, using their creativity to connect with the rest of the Zoomers across the world. Content creation has become one of the avenues and sources of employment hence the generation is using the demonstrations to create more content and earn a living. But how has the country responded to these generation Z demonstrations? How have the issues affecting the youth been addressed in the country? What underlying conditions and situations are pushing the youth to demonstrate without fear;willing to go the extra mile to prove their case? This article tries to unpack these key issues in understanding the Generation Z’s protests and why youth issues should remain a constant theme in Kenya’s national development.
Demonstrations and protests in Kenya are not a new phenomenon. Historically, the country’s foundation was built on protests,demonstrations and resistance. When one looks into the wars against colonialism, the fight for land and freedom (Mau Mau war), the fight against the single party political system, the struggle for a new constitution, and now the current uprising which is largely seen as an economic struggle for survival of the nation-state. These economic struggles will remain with us for many years. These people’s struggles define the turning point of the country, deepening the crisis of the nation-state. . One of the constant features in them is the youth. The people largely in the age sets of 18 years to 35 years. These are people trying to find meaning in their lives and hence connect with the daily happenings around them, and the hindrances they have in achieving their dreams and desired goals in life. It is these hindrances, obstacles and challenges, having witnessed how their forerunners fought to surmount the same challenges and obstacles in pain, that define their new fronts of engagements.
Any fruitful demonstrations or protests that solidify the national agenda, have key triggers. The land and freedom war, popularly known as Mau Mau, was national. The fight against one party system was national. The struggle for a new constitution was national and now the Finance Bill 2024 and the economy has rallied and unified Generation Z and indeed all generations in Kenya for a national struggle. It is these national voices which put the state machinery into unprecedented responses, largely leading to deaths, killings, injuries, assaults, abductions, kidnappings and all forms of human rights violations. Usually, the administration, which acts through competing interests, does not have a solid plan in responding to people’s demands through demonstrations or protests. In the current situation for instance, it is a straightforward matter that the administration ought to have shelved or withdrawn the Finance Bill 2024 to heed the demands of Generation Z but the opposite is the case with military deployment being the preferred intervention to quell the protests. A historian and a social scientist will quickly question this move by asking whether the demonstrators have become enemies or combatants against the state for the military to be deployed. Yet the demonstrators are exercising their democratic rights as enshrined under Article 1 of the Constitution, a Constitution which again was realised through blood during protests and demonstrations.
Generation Z just like other youthful stage are eager for education, are keen to learn but gets easily stressed and depressed with happenings in the society. This was observed in the Economist, February 2019. The generation is shaped by a drastically different world, resulting in key differences in attitudes, tendencies and outlook. They are politically a progressive generation and want to avoid the shortcomings they observed from their parents. And truth be told, they are bold and daring as they showed when they stormed the precincts of Parliament, something unheard of in Kenya. So far, one can say they are engaged and, conscientious stewards of a new Kenya — by being socially-minded, independent and creative thinkers, who recognize their responsibility in shaping a more equitable future for all Kenyans. But what should drive them to these great thinking?
Generation Z in Kenya should not be obsessed with the fall of the Finance Bill 2024 as the only panacea to societal challenges. They ought to deeply unpack the societal conditions and situations that forced the Finance Bill 2024 to Kenyans. They should re-examine the narratives that were marketed to them during the last general elections and ask themselves what really happened. They were called the wheelbarrow pushers, the cart pushers, the hustlers, the downtrodden, the poor, the ones whose kazi ni kazi slogan got a huge following and connected with the masses, and their parents had seen hope. The dynasties that had been branded as having failed the country over the years since independence were pushed out of the realms of power. And yes, it was to be a government of, by and for the hustlers. This narrative never lasted as the structural trappings of power within the state have caught up with the same marketers of the hustler narrative and do not seem to listen to the cries of the young people anymore. Lies have been peddled and the military is now being deployed to deal with “the dangerous criminals of the nation” who are involved in “treasonous” activities. These material conditions and situations of use and dump have perpetuated the suffering of Kenyans for long, hence the need for Generation Z to seek alternative broad approaches to deal with the treacherous conditions and situations.
It is a fact that Kenya developed the Kenya Youth Development Policy 2019 then under the Ministry of ICT, Innovation and Youth Affairs under the State Department for Youth Affairs. This Policy recognized that the youth are the strength, wealth and drivers of innovation in Kenya and deliberate and systematic efforts were necessary to appropriately equip and empower them to attain and realize their full potential and in turn, drive the attainment of development objectives in Kenya. However, and as it has been the norm where good policy documents are developed and shelved, this policy is rarely spoken of. Its association with the previous administration may even be blurring the interaction with it. Youth issues including youth participation in setting agenda for national development, participation in politics, youth discrimination and exclusion, youth work and employment are all discussed in the policy hence this ought to be understood and addressed beyond the fall of the Finance Bill 2024.
With so many write ups on the youth and youth development, Kenyans of good will should come out and ask what role needs to be played by everyone towards a better Kenya today and tomorrow. There should be outright overwhelming support for the Generation Z cause. With the deployment of the military for policing and dealing with the dangerous criminals and treasonous acts, the country may deeply slide and sink to the dark era of 1980s and early 1990s where eliminations would be the norm. This should be avoided as it would extinguish any gains made so far. The civil society platforms in place should come out decisively, immediately and boldly speak with one voice on what is happening and define the path to be taken to address the issues facing the country now. Any further delay or silence would collapse the democratic space.
In conclusion, democratic processes call for democratic political mobilisation and organisation. Generation Z ought to define and find their home politically beyond the Finance Bill 2024 to ensure that those interested in getting to elective positions have a political home. This way, they will secure their generation with a political vehicle to engage politically. They should firmly develop the values and principles that should define their vehicle, the objectives they aim to realize and how they intend to transform the Kenyan state-nation. The horizontal and organic engagements have shown their determined path to transform the country, let this not be in vain. Aluta Continua!
