More protests are planned for Thursday prior to the supposed signing of the bill. I’ve been seeing lots of anti-west / USA tweets from Kenyans today, including reports of rooftop snipers that fired on protesters. Hard to confirm much yet, but it seems there’s a big movement growing in the youth of the country.
I thought I’d give you some actual news from the ground. I’ll also try and give you some proper background so that you get a close to true picture of what’s going down, so LONG POST ALERT
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Our GenZs (Generation Zees) have decided that they have had enough of greedy and lying politicians. Unfortunately, Kenyan politics is driven by money and tribal affiliations. However, the young adults have now grown beyond tribal affiliations, and are ready to get rid of the corrupt politicians. They have the numbers as the Median age in Kenya is 20, and like 70% of the population is 25 or younger! Well, when the (extremely unfair and new tax heavy) finance bill came up for the vote in parliament, ALL the members of parliament voted YES! They were all bribed an equivalent of US$20,000 in cash. After the vote they were shocked when many of them tried to go back to their various constituencies and met with hostile youths ready to stone their SUVs and shout them down. During the protests following the vote, the protesters raided parliament and chased parliamentarians out. It was hilarious to watch on social media, and gave our thieving politicians a wake up call. The true power of the GenZs is social media. They organized what I would call the first truly countrywide protests to the extent that the Govt.attempted to switch off the internet ( they ended up just throttling it ) and forced all the major service providers to issue statements that the undersea fibre had been cut.
Kenya has slowly come from an authoritarian and hard handed government led then by Daniel Arap Moi, followed by Economist Mwai Kibaki who grew the economy but also borrowed heavily to improve the infrastructure. The result was huge development but with the burden of heavy loans. Corruption in Kenya has always been an issue and the political class always start by lining their own pockets. Kenyan politicians are the best paid in Africa and enjoy huge perks. Uhuru Kenyatta followed Kibaki and struggled to have the same impact as Kibaki. Uhuru is the son of Jomo Kenyatta and was of course from a privileged background as his dad was one of the first to amass huge wealth mostly through acquisition of Govt allocated land. Being the first president to take over from the British Colonists, he also inherited a system that was designed to oppress the masses, instill fear and deal ruthlessly with opposition. In all the Governments since Kenyatta, this legacy has always been hanging in the background, and was at its worst during the very long 24 year Moi regime. During the Moi regime which experienced the first true opposition that fought to remove Moi using the popular vote, the system kicked into overdrive and weaponized the Policd and legal system to detain, jail and even kill opposition voices. The West strongly backed the opposition which eventually took over power. However, in true Orwellian fashion, the formerly oppressed opposition leaders now become the new Elite. Massive theft and corruption accompanied the new found freedom, resulting in a new opposition movement led by Raila Odinga, a son of Oginga Odinga who was Prime Minister in Kenyatta’s first Govt but fell from grace and became the first face of the opposition. Raila was part and parcel of the Kibaki government and brokered a political deal to share power with Kibaki. The deal fell through in 2007, and for the first time Kenya almost degenerated into civil war when the election results were disputed. This time power sharing came into play again after a bitter dispute and violence breaking out with heavy tribal overtones. Every President has had the support of their tribe as the base of their power. This has also always resulted in heavy expectations from the tribal bases that has seen Govt positions been given based on loyalty and tribal affiliations, and mostly from the few larger tribes. Raila has never been president but in the last 20 years has probably been the most iconic figure and the face of the opposition. He has always been a huge thorn in the flesh for whatever Govt is in place. He lost the last heavily contested election to our current President William Ruto. William Ruto is an interesting fellow. His whole background is based on corruption, and he first came to fame via the notorious YK92 ( Youth for Kanu 1992) which was formed at the peak of the Moi era and supposedly was a movement to attract youth to the then ruling party KANU which was facing a lot of dissent and an emerging popular opposition. YK92 hit the scene with flashy cars and lifestyles. Most of its officials were flashing huge amounts of money and spending like money was going out of fashion. Ruto was a small timer in YK92, but was able to build a base for himself. In 2013 when Uhuru Kenyatta was looking for a running mate, Ruto was floated as a candidate. It is rumored that after Uhuru’s handlers vetoed Ruto, he was also paid a substantial amount of money. Ruto and Uhuru were pitted against Raila Odinga in a very closely contested and highly controversial election that ended up in the high court. Uhuru and Ruto won, but the election taught Ruto a very important lesson. To be President you needed to have more money than god. No sooner was Ruto in power that he set himself up
to loot at every opportunity in order to fund his election campaign 10 years down the line. (A president can only rule for 2 five year terms which has happened since Moi left power. ) Ruto’s base was therefore heavily set on looting and corruption, and even though he was much younger than Uhuru, Raila and the whole genre of the political class at the time. Being the vice president was a huge achievement which got to his head. He tasted true power for the first time, and was determined that he should rise to the top spot. His agreement with Uhuru was that after Uhuru’s 10 year stint, Ruto would then be the candidate supported by Uhuru. During Uhuru’s 2 term stint, Ruto soon lost the President’s ear, and was mostly a powerless Vice President. Uhuru’s political cronies from the Kikuyu elite class ran rap-shod over Ruto and left him depressed and downtrodden. To add to the abuse, at the end of his term, Uhuru threw his weight behind Raila Odinga in the 2022 election. Raila, with the state machinery on his side for a change, was now more or less guaranteed the Presidency. As the elections approached, Ruto was in panic mode, and started spending his ill gotten wealth to buy as much of the electorate as he could. Kenyans, being who they are, responded well to hard cash, and pretty soon politicians were shifting allegiance to the extent that the election was now going to be a neck to neck battle. Ruto won the election and started off by rewarding all his cronies with Govt positions, supply contracts and all manner of accolades. Many promises had been made during elections, and indeed the youth identified with Ruto whose marketing team had pitched the election as “Hustlers” vs “Dynasties”, a narrative that went down very well with the youth. Ruto positioned himself as a Hustler who got to where he was by living by his wits, hustling and entrepreneurship while Raila and Uhuru were the “Dynasties”, as both their fathers were the political leaders at Independence in 1963. Ruto won the (as always) controversial election, and settled in to what he foresaw as fulfillment of his dreams of becoming more wealthy than god, and enriching those supporting him.
That is the background, and how William Ruto entered State House after a grueling election. Like I mentioned, many promises were made during his campaign. But things started to go wrong almost immediately. He expected to find the coffers of the Kenyan exchequer overflowing with gold ( from where??), and lots of money to spend freely rewarding his cronies and refilling his own pockets. But Uhuru’s Government ( which he was part of by the way) had essentially sold the country with large dubious projects and wasteful spending. Uhuru had little need for money as his family is one of the wealthiest in Africa, but his luck luster performance as a President had done little to curb corruption and wasteful Government spending. The Economy was not doing well and scam after scam was hitting the press daily in Uhuru’s reign. It’s no surprise that Ruto found nothing in the coffers. Notwithstanding, his Government commenced as one of the most wasteful spending sprees ever seen. He also became the darling of the Bush regime starting with legalizing GMO maize and throwing himself at the feet of the IMF and Workd Bank begging for funds. Since he was singing the right tune, he was given the money he was asking for, most of which was being generously looted. These funds came with strings attached and he was told he has to TAX his citizens in order to be able to repay the debt. The new finance bill had all manner of innocuous taxes including increasing VAT from 16% to 22%, increasing income tax, introducing taxes on animals and pets (
) etc Ruto has also a very smooth toungue and lies openly without blinking. The GenZs we’re having none of it! They started a campaign that was driven from the anger at being cheated by politicians who were openly flaunting their new found wealth. They understood the power of numbers and social media. Without sparing a thought for their own safety, they started openly criticizing the president and his totally inept cabinet. They called him a liar to his face and started challenging him. They stated that they were going to hold countrywide protests that would be praceful, and proceeded to do exactly that. Any violence that occurred was instigated by the Police and state owned goons hired to disrupt, infiltrate and disband the rebellion. But NO! The GenZs have refused to be moved. Previously the champion of Mass action has been Raila Odinga who, because of age, does not have the energy he had in his earlier career. This time the GenZs specifically told him to stay home and watch them take the country back
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So, in a nutshell the GenZs are at the forefront of this revolution. Earlier in this thread a sample of tweets were shown all of which I have on my phone. Every day I get done incredibly bold and funny tweets, Whatsup messages, Tik Toks and Instagram posts that tell me that this is no passing cloud. To give him credit, Ruto has availed himself on social platforms ( He was on X space being blasted for unleashing violence during the protests), but he is totally unable to respond to the angry youth, and he resorts to making promises that he cannot keep. On those forums, he is getting a proper telling off with facts being presented and questions being asked. He is literally wading through deep sh*t!
Just to give you an example of the power of this movement, a lady was shot and killed by a sniper during one of the first demonstrations
. One of the demonstrators was able to identify where the sniper was and took a picture with his phone. The picture was enhanced and posted on social media, and in no time at all, the Policeman’s name, address, and family members were circulated on Social media! The fellow and his family are now cooling off in a safe house somewhere
. During the next set of demonstrations, the cops surfaced wearing masks
. They did not want to be recognized.
The GenZs have now announced that the finance bill ( which President Ruto now says is cancelled) is no longer the issue. Now they want Ruto out of office and a fresh election. Elected members of parliament (MPs)are totally in shock at the realization that their terms may be over! Typically these MPs move with convoys escorted by chase cars and flouting traffic rules with loud sirens blaring! Now, they are quietly navigating traffic jams and keeping very low profiles.
It’s not just the President getting flack. The other day one if the many churches in Nairobi announced they were having a fundraiser with the First Lady (Ruto’s wife) as the guest of honor. (It is quite common for politicians to grace churches on Sunday and make big donations with their ill gotten gains) In no time at all, the GenZs castigated the Church for not standing up to oppose the finance bill, and they also announced they would be coming to that Church for the fundraiser. The fundraiser was promptly cancelled. Furthermore, all Churches were asked to give the GenZs a chance to present their case against the finance bill!!
Sooo, you need to take this ground zero report with a pinch of salt. Depending on who you ask, you will get more or less the same story but with personal biases injected. I am a 64 year old Kenyan Engineer, born and bred in Nairobi, and I have 3 children who are a Millennial. a Zelennial and one Gen Zee. Like many other Kenyans, I’ve watched as our political class go from bad to worse. I’ve lived through the turmoil and political changes from a one party state, to the current multi-party environment, constitutional changes and supposed political freedom. I can well remember a time when you only spoke politics while whispering for fear of getting picked by the dreaded special branch. Now people openly abuse the President and his cronies on social media, snd there is a call for accountability. However, I do believe that people get the leaders they deserve, and our leaders are indeed a reflection of ourselves. ( And then there is Karma
) Greed, Tribalism and poverty are all present in today’s Kenya and my generation is a poor example for our children. The problems in Kenya are to a large extent the same problems of Africa. I hope the GenZs will hold strong and do what my generation was unable to do - get Leaders of substance, men and women with integrity, Vision and love for their fellow men and women. I dare to hope.
Thank you for reading.
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