Mr. President, the blood of fallen youths is on your hands
President William Ruto should be reminded that no amount of weaponry can shield him from the people.
That is why despite heavily armed police officers barricading Parliament, resilient, educated, disillusioned angry youths boldly stormed the buildings to take back their country from the hands of an impervious and arrogant political class.
Some of them paid the ultimate price. As Kenya mourns the souls of the 23 young Kenyans, President Ruto should be told that he has the blood of these warriors against bad governance squarely on his hands.
They were shot dead, carrying the most solemn symbol - the national flag of a country they have been brought up to love. They died by the bullet for demanding a fair tax regime and responsible spending by a lavish administration.
They were hoping to speak truth to power targeting a selfish and greedy political elite that is determined to play roulette with their future.
They faced coldblooded guns while exercising their constitutional rights, only demanding to be to heard.
Young people are the future of our nation. Kenya is a young nation. About 80 percent of its population is aged below 35. The youth - aged between 18 and 35 - will determine the shape of the country’s political and economic future. This generation has weaned itself off the primordial mobilisation appetites of our aging politicians that Ruto leads.
Our politicians have been feeding on the anxieties of tribalism, poverty and low literacy of a gullible and vulnerable population to bribe their way into power using dirty money.
A study by the East African Institute of the Aga Khan University reveals that the youth driving a revolution against Ruto are tribeless. They identify as Kenyans first. They value family, faith and hard work. They are entrepreneurial: the majority would like to start their own business, rather than pursue careers in pedigree courses.
What is more, they are largely positive and optimistic about the future and confident that it will be more prosperous.
They are hopeful that the future will accord them access to better jobs and medicare without reliance on bad-mannered leaders.
Youth don’t swallow political baloney
The unity, power, resolve, self-awareness, political and economic consciousness of the next biggest bloc of voters is what is frightening the Ruto political cabal that thrives on deceit, mocks the poor with ill-gotten wealth, rewards incompetence, rationalises corruption and ridicules divergent thought and a good education.
It is clear that Gen Z will not be available for bribes from the washy-washy politicians who have found comfortable shelter at the feet of this presidency.
They don’t swallow political baloney. They fact-check claims and their decisions are driven by data, science and facts and truth.
But Kenyans must be alarmed that the deaths of several protesters were an assault on the Constitution that the President swore to uphold, defend and protect. The state killings projected disdain for the people. They also raise questions about the judgment and temperament of the man entrusted with the country’s instruments of aggression.
But it is no surprise, given the President’s political history. Ruto opposed the 2010 Constitution and seemingly detests the whole idea that it puts him on a tight leash and addresses him as a servant, not a demi-lord, of the people.
Gen Z are the embodiment of the optimism cast in the preamble of the Constitution which declares that as Kenyans, we are proud of our ethnic, cultural and religious diversity.
Article 1 of the Constitution is a beautiful bulwark. It states that all sovereign power belongs to the people and they may exercise their sovereign power directly or through their democratically elected representatives. The young people decided to “occupy” Parliament under the frustration that these representatives were no longer serving their interests.
Ruto responded to the raid with his usual cockiness and fiat. The presidency yesterday conceded to Gen Z demands and shed crocodile tears. This was too little and came too late. Did the youngster have to die for Ruto to beat a retreat? For the families who lost their children, we can only tell them that night is interminable but dawn will soon break. And for their parents, we refer them to a stanza by Kenyan poet Jonathan Kariara:
“If you should take my child Lord
Give my hands strength to dig his grave
cover him with earth
Lord send a little rain
For grass will grow.”
