Protests by young generation are inspired by dashed hopes

KDF Officers in Nairobi CBD for Gen Z Anti-Finance Bill protest. [Stafford Ondego, Standard]

To say that the Finance Bill 2024 is the cause of the so called Gen Z protests, is akin to saying that Gavrilo Princip and his organisation, the Black Hand, simply caused what eventually is recorded in history as the World War 1 of 1914 to 1918.

The Finance Bill was a trigger of simmering public anger and years of citizens disaffection with the running of our public affairs.

For context, I will reiterate that when we attained independence, we failed to dismantle the administrative colonial edifice that had subjugated and dehumanised our people. Out went the white oppressor and in came a more vicious black oppressor.

If the colonial administrative power structure allowed for district based political formations, the independence government relied on executive fiat to ban political parties and without any further recourse.

Those who held different political views from that held by the political establishment were detained without the benefit of due process. Others were shot dead in broad daylight. Some disappeared while others were denied the right to work in their country and the right to travel out of the country.

That is why 2002 and 2010 for all the glory associated with them, must be seen as the epochs when we had it all within our grasp but let it slip out of our hands. The defeat of Nyayo regime in 2002 was a cry for justice by the citizens.

After 40 years of unbridled impunity, Kenyans concluded that the fish indeed rots from the head and to end the legacy of impunity that Kanu had presided over, it was imperative that they got a president who would commence the important work of national renewal.

But barely three months in office, the old ghosts came back in full swing. Members of the Narc summit were denied a chance to interact with President Kibaki by a vicious power cartel. The said power cartels then gradually but steadily repurposed the national renewal agenda into ethnic/regional renewal agenda. It’s for that reason that members of Kibaki’s kitchen cabinet are said to have told ministers from western Kenya to take a walk for they are known oppositionists.

A lost opportunity. The impunity we thought we had dealt a death blow crept back in with a vengeance, thereby eroding the legitimacy and authority of the state. The net effect was the 2007 post-election violence. We then talked a great deal about about ending the culture of impunity.

We went ahead and got ourselves a new constitution. We then quickly killed Chapter 6 of the Constitution, giving ourselves MPs that make Kanu-era politicians look like saints. The chapter on land, we have implemented in a manner that neither addressed historical injustices nor created meaningful reforms from the way things were before the new constitution.

The government we elected to implement the new Constitution looked at Chapter 12 of the Constitution; Public finance, and started devising ways on how grand corruption that would dwarf Anglo leasing and Goldenberg in magnitude could be executed.

That is how we amended the PFM Act that money borrowed could be expended before first taking it to the consolidated fund. That is how Eurobond happened, plunging us into this debt crisis and subsequently mortgaging the future of so many young people.

The 2022 surprise win by Kenya Kwanza looked like an opportunity to meaningfully push the reform agenda forward. Their rhetoric about regard for the poor and the destitute struck a nerve with so many young people.

Their assertion that economic planning preoccupied with expanding existing bottom lines was a recipe for disaster earned them admirers among the intelligentsia.

The hiring of the Cabinet was the first letdown. Higher taxes then followed but we hoped prudence would be the guiding light. But extravagance and near juvenile exhibitionism took centre-stage.

Mr Kidi is the Convenor of Inter-Parties Youth Forum