Economic woes turned youths into political animals in 2024

Youth during Gen-Z protests in Nairobi. [File, Standard]

In 2024, young people in Kenya became a frontier of resistance and agitation for change. After a decade, where the youth were associated with the party scene and social media escapades, their indifference to politics came to a halt with a bang! Perhaps the awakening was triggered by the hustler campaign narrative, which promised to centre the average struggler in the economy.

Two years after the 2022 elections, it became clear that the struggler, hustling to make a shilling from the daily grind, was not only struggling due to flagging demand but was also burdened by a regulatory web that ensnared small and micro enterprises. The Finance Act 2024 was the straw that broke the camel's back. Something snapped.

The youth suddenly realised that the stories about the Structural Adjustment Programme of the 1980s were not just old wives' tales. There was a real chance many would drop out of college due to fees increases, and the reorganisation of student loans threatened to make higher education a pipe-dream for many. It does not matter that the authorities assured that no learner would miss school.

A surging trust deficit means the youth do not believe much of what the government says. A deepening scepticism is driving the youth to query each and every government policy. Armed with the reach of social media and tools from the internet, the Gen Z is in a frenzy.

Previously apolitical, the youth are on history and politics crash course. They are unearthing historical gems and unleashing them on TikTok. Some are on a civic education mission using the social media profiles to drive different narratives.

As mainstream media shied away from controversy, social media became the main source of news for the youth. What were previously social media gossip pages featuring the sleaziest of sex stories reinvented themselves into advocacy sites. There was no place for ignorance in 2024. Gossip pages that wrote about the latest sex scandals now led with analyses on the budget.

Using a combination of sheer pressure and mass re-education, the Gen Z made 2024 the year of the youth. From striking intern doctors to junior secondary school teachers and boda boda riders resisting the introduction of eTims for delivery of services, the struggle morphed into one. Youth, forced to seek greener pastures abroad due to lack of employment and having to battle racism and marginalisation there, are writing back on social media demanding good governance.

They are not just ranting but are instrumental in hosting online town halls on the X platform to strategise. The unemployed doctor and nurse became the rear-guard of a crowd funded emergency rescue mission, in probably the best organised protest movement in the history of the country.

The June protests revealed the depth of skill and knowledge of our youth. It is telling that the authorities were left second guessing, attributing the movement first to the Ford Foundation, then the official opposition and finally characterising them as coup attempt ostensibly by the immediate former deputy president. Attempts by politicians to harness the rage fell by the wayside as the movement grew a life of its own.

Leaders emerged from within the movement only to falter and dissipate. The mantra “We are Tribeless, Leaderless and Partyless” truly lived to its expectation. It is a sign of the times as the youth realise that organising along the usual parameters of tribe, identity and personalities is a sure way to fail.

While the new Constitution offered a new beginning for the country, failure to develop a new paradigm for political organisation quickly drove the country to the pits of ethnic mobilisation, with the attendant waxing over obvious association with corruption, economic saboteurs and even downright criminals. As the adage goes, we only changed the forest but kept the monkeys.

Looking into the new year, the task is cut out for the Gen Z. To make the youth enthusiasm of 2024 count, we must organise, not agonise. As the generations that fought for independence and those who fought for the new Constitution realised; in politics it is not enough to win. You must devise a method to triumph over the challenges and hurdles facing the country. Promises and good intentions are only worth the infrastructure deployed to deliver. Developing a political infrastructure to midwife the birth of a new nation is a daunting intellectual and social task.

After the rage of 2024, we have a duty to re-imagine the new Kenya that works for all irrespective of tribe, creed, gender or social status. The change starts with you as an individual and how you link with others using the available tools to create the juggernaut that will not only win but also change the minds of people to view a place in high office not as licence for riches for self and chosen associates, but a chance to catapult the nation to a new high.