State's response to Gen-Z protests sparks Kenya-US diplomatic tension

President William Ruto is received by the President of the United States of America Joe Biden at The White House, Washington, D.C for a technology roundtable on May 23, 2024. [PCS]

For the second time in about a decade, the relationship between Kenya and the United States is going through an apparently challenging phase, as Nairobi and Washington are today clashing on the interpretation of the recent deadly and chaotic protests.

While Kenyan authorities believe that the youth's protests were partly financed by an American organisation, Ford Foundation, using local civil society groups whose aim was to topple a democratically elected government, the US sees them differently, lauding the role of both entities as "vital" in a healthy democracy and reminding Nairobi of the "importance of freedoms of assembly and expression as enshrined in the Kenyan Constitution."