What next with Gen Z movement, is it Dead or Not...?

 

                  

            Surrendered but still on course,

In recent times, the country has faced a renaissance of socio-political activism, especially among its youthful population. What happened in June 25 2024, marked a bold moment in the history of demonstrations in the quest for public accountability showcasing the power and determination of Generation Z to call for change. Gen Z, a generation of people born from 1997-2004. And of course it was not the nation’s first time experience a youthful population rising to defy the status quo as it present a historical continuity of a youthful involvement in the country’s political issues.

Not a first-time experience, read some history!

Remember Kenya African Union, Mau Mau, the Kepenguria Six and other grass root freedom fighting organizations during the colonial era? These local organizations played a crucial roles in the struggle for Kenya’s political and economic independence from the British rule. The successes of  Lancaster 1&2 negotiations paving the way for independence constitution are largely owed to these groups of young, energetic, some educated Kenyans. It shows that Kenya's fight for freedom was heavily influenced by young activists who predominated aforementioned groups. Fast-forward to the second liberation movement, which is yet another period in which young people were at the forefront of socio-political change. Kenyans were fatigued by the autocracy and dictatorship of President Daniel Moi which was secured or guaranteed by the existence of section 2A of then Kenyan constitution. Section 2A had made Kenya a one party state, KANU. Several groups of youthful politicians agitated for constitutional reforms led a successful movement that finally forced president Moi to allow for the repeal of section 2A paving the way for multiparty politics and transforming Kenya’s political space into more democratic one. These historical analogues reveals that the recent massive protests spearheaded by a leaderless, party less and tribless Gen Z population   are part of a long conventions of youthful activism in Kenya. While the likeness is very flamboyant, what distinguish these protests from those in the past, however, is absence of political formation, leadership influencing or guiding them, the mode of mobilization, social media was really efficient. With 97% of Kenya’s youth owning a smartphone and significant portion of them is on social media platforms such as X and Tiktok, Gen z leveraged on advantage of popular  social media platforms to discuss issues affecting them and their concerns about their government

The June Protests; A new epoch of Activism.

Preceding the historic #RejectFinanceBill2024 protests, numerous politically stimulated ones had been experienced, including the last year’s protest against Finance Bill 2023 which had proposed introduction of the controversial Housing Levy. Notably, these protest were often organized by established opposition politicians, majorly the veteran opposition Chief Raila Odinga. The demonstrations showcased a collective frustration with ongoing problems the country was facing. It was culmination frustrations out of pressing issues that have been budging overtime since Kenya Kwanza regime took oath of office. Issues spanning from development, pubic debt, corruption, arrogance and opulence displayed by regime’s senior officials and most importantly the growing unfavourable austerity tax policy imposed by regime. In fact, at the centre-stage was the tax policy. Finance Bills, are annual revenue generation frameworks proposals showcasing strategies that government intends to employ to generate enough revenues for appropriation act [The Budget Policy Statement} for the following financial year. While on this, it is important to know that government raises revenues using two major strategies; through public borrowing which can be sourced from domestic or external sources and internal revenue generation which is largely through taxation. The government is currently facing an increasingly  narrowing fiscal space and a widening fiscal deficit. Further, according to the latest Annual public debt report,2023, report for FY2023-2024 is yet to be released by the public debt management office, the current debt level is 11Tr which is very alarming as it has already surpassed the revised July 2022  10Tr ceiling mark. In the current annual borrowing plan, the state has opted to put Public Private Partnerships on full-scale following the enactment PPP Act 2021 which grants government ability to involve private actors in development of government projects. The Act provides various frameworks engagement with private investors. One iconic example done under this framework is the Express Way, being operated and shall be transferred by Chinese later on. Another other one, is Adani deal proposal, which has sparked mixed reactions from the public, has been proposed to be done under a PPP framework.

What caused the historic protests?

Owing to the ongoing country’s tight financial situation, the government in collaboration with IMF crafted a revenue strategy that had proposed numerous radical taxation measures such as 2.5% vehicle tax, 16% VAT on bread, tax on sanitary pads, eco-levy tax inter alia. In response, most Kenyans felt these new tax measures as oppressive and are anti-people, anti-development & anti-growth. With raging discourse against the passing of the bill, most Kenyans largely Gen Z in social media platforms particularly on X, made appealing arguments to Statehouse and Parliament to not pass the Bill. Although, there were several attempts to amend certain measures in the Bill by the finance committee, public pressures were already at the pick overshadowing those attempts, making it clear that these protests were not just because of Finance bill but something way bigger, the conversation of public accountability. Kenyans were fatigued by rampant corruption, arrogance, opulence and pride utterly displayed by elected officials. The passing of the Bill at the second reading stage, forced the movement to organize the famous “7 days of Rage” which were series of daily protests dubbed ‘Occupy’- each day had its own space to be occupied leading up to the 25^th June 2024, the historic date that parliament buildings were occupied and set ablaze by Kenyans following the passing of the bill by the members of the parliament. While the constitution of Kenya through Article 37 grants the public the right to assemble and protest  peacefully and forward their grievances to public authorities, reaching parliament and,  let alone contemplating to forward to statehouse had not been attained in the past in the history of  protest in this country. The determination, zeal, energy and reawakened awareness to be involved affair of the country to the extent of occupying a sacred public building is something never seen in the history of this country.

Government Response and the Shift in Political Dynamics

In antiphon of intense pressure from Gen z “7 Days of Rage”, the government seemed shaken and had to make series of well-thought unconventional political moves to quell the pressure. The head of state first gave in to the demand from Gen Z and Kenyans to fire his cabinet, which he did. This move was embraced and generated a good feeling of an achievement of the protests. Consequently, the expectation thereafter was that the head of state was going to hire new a cohort of cabinet secretaries, holding ministry-specific technical experience qualification only to realize that what followed was yet another form of recycling of same leaders he had fired, not only the ones he had fired but the ones the public had showed concerns about. Remember Murkoment, Kindiki and Duale?  Further, the government had to approach opposition to forge a rapprochement; ‘Broad-Based Government ‘with opposition chief Raila Odinga to assist dissipate  the anti-government pressure in the country, and since then, quite dramatic political shifts and realignments has happened. Notwithstanding, the government have since tried to leap up the engagement efforts with young people through senior position appointments, for example appointment of Eric Mureithi, a young career Water engineer as CS Water , holding virtual forums with young people and promising scaling up investments in programs directly benefiting the youth.

What next with Gen Z movement, is it Dead or Not?

There are ongoing debates of whether Gen Z movement is still relevant, does it hold any future in national politics/conversations on matters concerning governance of this country or is it simply dead? Well, Some believe that following the recent political  realignments between the president Ruto and Raila Odinga whom  for the first time in three decades will not be running for the country’s top job, Gen Z pressure have drastically faded off and will have inconsequential effect in any similar future situations. And most importantly in the next general election in which citizen will have a chance to change face of leadership of this nation. Conversely, others believe that Gen Z are straight focused on the movement and understand they hold certain degree of power as crucial group in the current political spectrum. Fearing the return of the traditional tribe-based politics which they have pronounced distant from, Gen Z have continued their movement’s messaging of ‘Tribe less, Party less and Leaderless’ slogan. Also, there is non-stop engagement of young people in prevailing issues of contentions originating from the government. Youths are proactive in discussing myriad of critical issues ranging from healthcare, job creation, economy, public debt, education with recent New-Funding model, and the current controversial Airport takeover deal by Adani Company. Also, the rising numbers of independent young people standing up to challenge government failures in addressing problems embattling the public has continued spirit of the movement. For instance, Morara Kebaso, has gained popularity in recent months for exposing corruption and failures of government to implement development of projects it supposed to implement.

          Is the movement still  alive or dead?

In the backdrop of post-finance bill protests, many young Kenyans lost their lives as result of police brutality and unconstitutional kidnappings with an aim to quell the uprising, this for no doubt intimidated young people to continue with calls for proper public accountability. However, there is no stop! Most young people now have full understanding of how participating in political affairs, particularly electing   genuine leaders is of fundamental importance to development. They have promised to remain steadfast in course and rally themselves to practice their democratic right to vote come 2027. They understand that they hold power with their vote owing to the fact that they are as quite a significant portion of the voter-population which is quite consequential in influencing vote results in an election. I think 2027 is year to wait, and most Kenyans can’t even wait. They can’t wait to demote their current representatives in parliament, they can’t to replace them with new genuine ones, and they can’t wait to realize their chants #RutoMustGo into reality. They can’t wait to have a new face of patriotic, trustworthy and pro-people government of the by the people for the people. Because that is the form of government they were taught in school.