by Eugene Walker
The youth in Kenya are no joke. They stormed the National Assembly in Kenya on 25 June 2024. They set part of it on fire. They ransacked the hallowed building, smashing everything in sight. Some even ate the food in the cafeteria that was specially made for the “dishonorable” members of parliament and senators. Others smashed into the Senate chambers and took over as the people’s representatives, including one who acted as the Speaker. The golden mace, a symbol of parliamentary authority, was carted away to set up a people’s parliament in a liberated zone away from the discredited and dishonored National Assembly.
–Njuki Githethwa, Kenyan writer and activist-scholar
In June, young protesters took to the streets in towns and cities throughout Kenya. They called their demonstrations Seven Days of Rage—June 21-27. On June 25 they stormed the National Assembly. The cost to the youth was enormous—41 have been killed by the police, thousands injured, under orders of President William Ruto, citing “treasonous events.”
GOVERNMENT TAXING THE POOR
Ruto and his coalition came to power in a contentious election in 2022. The regime has been characterized as displaying an opulent life style with extravagant spending. The President took dozens of trips abroad while raising taxes at home, including removing fuel subsidies and raising electricity prices. President Biden honored him with a state dinner.
Ruto’s government introduced a new finance bill this past May. As the protests were mounted in mid-June, the National Assembly passed the bill, raising prices on imported staples like eggs, onions and cooking oil, at the same time raising taxes on a wide range of goods and services. The youth protesters invaded the Assembly as thousands more took part in growing protests.
So powerful were the protests that President Ruto was forced to cancel the Finance bill that had been voted in. The question is: What happens now?
Grave contradictions exist in this supposedly “stable” country, including multiple dimensions of revolt.
WOMEN PROTEST FEMICIDES, DEMAND ACTION
This past January thousands of women participated in a march against femicides. They declared that femicide was not only murder, but a specific kind of murder targeting women and therefore in need of specific laws to combat this attack on women as women.
In the Rift Valley the government has been evicting the Indigenous Ogiek community from their ancestral land. Protests have taken place.
Njuki Githethwa writes of revolution in the wake of the massive youth protest:
The youth led by the Gen-Zs know that now it is their time to bask in the sun of change. The future is theirs. They are seizing the time. The working class are fighting for their survival, the middle class for their security. An anti-establishment social movement is coalescing, led by the vibrancy, energies and dynamism of youth. A new and fresh political order is emerging in Kenya, as elsewhere in Africa. Everything must fall. Everything must change.