State's heavy-handedness is to blame for youths' rising anger

Protestors demand justice for the late teacher and blogger Albert Ojwang, along Waiyaki Way, Nairobi, on June 17, 2025. Ojwang died in custody at Central Police Station. [Kanyiri Wahito, Standard]

With the first anniversary of the June 25 demonstrations being Wednesday, many youths as well as older generations are in a state of mourning, even as they recognise the monumental day last year when they dared to march into Parliament and have their voices heard. In the long year since this day, however, it has felt as if the more things have changed, the more they have remained the same. What once felt like an accomplished dream with the quashing of the Finance Bill 2024, has now become a dream deferred.

Even though the Finance Bill itself was set aside, in the following months, many of the laws it proposed were passed through the cover of other independent Bills, making it hard to track these movements, and essentially proving that the President's guarantee that he had heard the youth was nothing but hot air.