From twitter to teargas: How Gen Z is leading the largest political awakening of Kenya

What started as a protest against a Finance Bill proposed by President William Ruto turned into a protest against police brutality and escalated into chaos across Nairobi and 23 other counties. They had no leader or face of the protest; they were armed with mobile phones and hashtags like #RejectFinanceBill2024, #OccupyParliament, and #GenZRevolution. Social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram helped them rally to the streets, and TikTok helped them conduct livestreams. The demonstrators marched with slogans like, "We are the government", "You messed with the wrong generation", and “Ruto Must Go.” They were met with a brutal crackdown.

"These guys have been killing our cousins. If you try to protest, these people just come and try to shoot. They shoot us actually with live bullets. Not rubber bullets," said Mohammed from Nairobi, as reported by the BBC.

The Kenyan National Human Rights Committee said there were instances of using excessive force, including the use of rubber bullets, live ammunition and resulting in numerous injuries. At least 16 people were killed and 400 were injured in the Kenyan protest, including demonstrators, police officers and journalists on June 25, which marked the 1st anniversary of the GenZ demonstration. The Kenyan communication authority had issued a directive to stop broadcasting the demonstration, and some stations like NTV and KTN were pulled off-air for defying the ban.

Last year's protest at first had no opposition leaders, no trade union calls, and it was just a spontaneous awakening, truly organic, decentralised, and led by young, unaffiliated Kenyans. There were slogans like “Not Azimio, not UDA. Just the people.” As the protest started to gain momentum, Leaders from the Azimio La Umoja opposition coalition (led by Raila Odinga) began to support the protests. But they were often not welcomed at youth-led rallies; youths feared that they wanted to ride the wave, instead of leading the rally.

Civil society groups like Amnesty International Kenya, Kenya Human Rights Commission, Law Society of Kenya provided legal aid and documented abuse.

Those protests against the Finance Bill left 60 dead and 20 missing. Even though Ruto repealed the Finance Bill, it was too late; the demand was now justice and accountability for the dead, the Resignation of Ruto and top ministers, jobs, housing, and real economic change. The government said these protests were infiltrated by foreign interference, but the claim was dismissed by civil society and protestors alike.

This year, protestors started to rally over the death of a Kenyan blogger, Albert Ojwang, in police custody. Ojwang was arrested on Friday for posting objectionable information against a senior police official. There were also cries for accountability over the shooting of street hawker Boniface Kariuki in a public space.

Kenya is in a difficult state with the rising state debt, and the finance bill was supposed to raise $2.7 billion with taxes on essentials like bread and fuel. It was a painful and pragmatic move to appease the IMF. But this was betrayal for Kenyan youth with unemployment at 67 per cent, a shrinking job market prompted them to take to the streets, where they met with brutality, culminating in a massive sentiment to oust the government of William Ruto.