Saba Saba Day remembered as Gen Z leads new fight for change

The Gen Z protests in Kenya have stunned many observers both locally and in other countries across the African continent, but it is worth noting that mass protests in the country have become a common occurrence since the 1990s.

They were, however, mainly driven by the opposition, church leaders, students and civil society during the struggle for multi-party democracy and constitutional reforms.

Most memorable was the Saba Saba protests on July 7, 1990, which later turned into running battles but never before have the youth taken sole and individual responsibility without being led by the established political leaders to champion for change as is the case in the ongoing agitation by Generation Z.

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The young tech-savvy digital buffs have over the last three weeks stunned the country by taking matters in their own hands as they called for major governance reforms and an overhaul of the political order.

“The young people have decided to take care of the future of the country by forming one constituency to protest without being tied down by politicians, political parties and other partisan considerations and we should leave them to occupy these spaces,” says ODM Secretary General Edwin Sifuna.

In the 1980s and 1990s young people, especially university students led by their leaders played a significant role in the fight for change but those protests were largely overshadowed by the involvement of politicians.

During the Saba Saba riots in 1990, elderly politicians like Masinde Muliro together with Martin Shikuku and the Young Turks James Orengo, Gitobu Imanyara and Paul Muite drove around the city with thousands of young running around Nairobi demanding for multi-party politics, equity and corrupt-free country.

Other senior figures like Kenneth Matiba and Charles Rubia had been detained before the riots, while Jaramogi Oginga Odinga was stopped from joining the demonstrations.

Scholar, writer and veteran journalist Barrack Muluka argues that while the issues raised by current protesters and their predecessors remain largely the same, the process now is a bottom-up uprising by the youth.

“The young sensitive generation that we have in the country today has decided to speak out loudly while protesting to those in power and they have to be listened to,” says Muluka.

The country also witnessed riots in 1999, this time pushed by the Conference of Catholic Bishops among them then Arch-Bishop of Nairobi Ndingi Mwana ‘a Nzeki, the National Churches of Kenya, the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims and the civil society.

A prayer meeting convened on June 1, 1999 at the Holy Family Basilica gathered around 1,500 people to call for constitutional reforms and later in the afternoon sparked riots in Nairobi and other parts of the country.

The same compound witnessed terrible scenes last week when anti-riot police teargassed medics and volunteer nurses at medical tents pitched to provide first aid and treatment to wounded protestors.

In the 1999 demos, Timothy Njoya, who was the moderator of the Presbyterian Church at Kinoo on the outskirts of Nairobi from where he used to lash out at President Daniel arap Moi’s government in his summons every Sunday was seriously beaten and injured while leading protests near parliament buildings.

President William Ruto appears to have copy pasted President Daniel arap Moi’s template because like in 1999, when hired goons then called Jeshi la Mzee beat up and injured protesters, it has also been alleged that snipers who were not police officers shot and injured the Gen Z protesters.

Club-wielding youths were also allegedly hired by pro-government politicians to attack peaceful protesters in Eldoret and other towns.

“Probably the President thinks that making small concessions here and there and making some changes in government the way Moi did when he removed Nicholas Biwott, will convince the Gen Z, we wait to see if he will do the same to powerful Cabinet secretaries,” said Gen Z protester Paul Njoroge Kinuthia on X.

Like the Saba Saba and other protests, including many clashes that have erupted in the push for changes at the Independent Electoral Boundaries Commission (IEBC) in the past, police continue attacking thousands of protesters trying to march on Parliament and other public institutions.

Shooting of innocent people caught in the crossfire with life bullets are rife, among them the case of the children of baby Pendo who was killed when police officers smashed her head in the arms of her mother during the 2017 riots in Kisumu.

In the current Gen Z demonstrations, it was also reported that police allegedly shot a young boy eight times killing him in Rongai last week.

But never before have police killed so many people, with reports indicating that 44 have so far died from the current skirmishes.

In 1999, riot police fired tear gas and stun grenades, as security forces fought running battles with protesters for more than four hours.

The Red Cross said dozens of people suffered minor injuries, and several others were knocked unconscious or hurt by rubber bullets as they marched to Parliament where the budget speech was ongoing after leaving Holy Family Basilica.

The Standard reported that youths armed with slingshots and lumps of pavement battled security forces in the city centre and chanted, “Moi must go,” an opposition rallying cry, as truckloads of police were quickly deployed on streets.

More than a dozen people were killed in the 1997 reform protests that brought changes in the Electoral Commission of Kenya which introduced the Inter-Parliamentary Parties Group in the run-up to elections that returned President Moi for his final term in power since he took over in 1978.

Muluka regrets that most of the issues that people are protesting against now remain the same as those that were there from the Saba Saba riots and all through the 1980s and 1990s, which indicates that there is a reversal of values and gains.

On March 3, 1992, the Moi government forcibly dispersed demonstrators who had joined mothers at Uhuru Park led by Prof Wangari Maathai. They were demanding the release of political prisoners, to which the government yielded.

Anti-riot police forces beat the protesters with batons, fired gunshots into the air and hurled tear gas into the tent where the mothers were gathered. To ward off the police, three of the protesting mothers stripped off their dresses and while shaking breasts shouted: “What kind of government is this that beats women? Kill us! Kill us now! We shall die with our children!”

Muluka also recounted that in the 1992 protests, police beat, clobbered and chased protestors all the way to Majengo, California, Kaloleni, Makongeni, Muthurwa, and other estates in the Eastlands area of Nairobi.

“We did not have the kind of thing we see now, where young people have been shot using live bullets, yet Moi was receiving all manner of insults that were being thrown at him and the Kanu regime,” says Muluka.

The only time when young people took the streets in large numbers in previous riots was in 1982 during the attempted coup when university students joined some Kenya Air Force renegades who wanted to overthrow the government.

The then chairman of the Students Organisation of Nairobi University Titus Adungosi was among those who went on air at the then Voice of Kenya to announce that they had taken over the government.

“We were in our early 20’s and so you can say that in a sense that mirrors in age dimensions to what is happening today but again police did not shoot the students. Soldiers were on the streets but no peaceful protesters were killed,” recounts Muluka.

Opposition-led protests were also held many times during President Uhuru Kenyatta’s reign especially in his first term from 2013 to 2017 before his famous handshake with ODM leader Raila Odinga.

After the 2022 presidential elections won by President Ruto, the opposition again contested the results and decided to organise street protests after the Supreme Court dismissed the petition for lack of evidence.

Raila who narrowly lost the election, led his supporters in calling for the IEBC servers to be opened, stopping the reconstitution of IEBC that was ongoing and lowering the high cost of living among other demands.

The Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition leaders called for bi-weekly protests that led to serious running battles between protestors and ant-riot police who were again using tear gas, stun grenades, rubber bullets and water cannons.

The protests were later called off after the death of at least three people when President Ruto agreed to dialogue with Raila and the opposition by forming the National Dialogue Committee co-chaired by Kalonzo Musyoka and Kimani Ichung’wah.

Its recommendations remain unfulfilled but further rapprochement has taken place between Ruto and Raila, after the President proposed the opposition leader’s name for the position of African Union chairperson.