Kenya is steadily drifting into a dangerous culture where unemployed young people are increasingly being weaponised for political battles, raising a painful question are we becoming a country that normalises goonism?

The disturbing events witnessed on Sunday, June 14,2026, at All Saints Cathedral, where groups of youth reportedly attacked civil society organisations during a post-budget engagement forum, once again exposed a troubling pattern that has quietly taken root in the country. Young people, instead of being empowered through meaningful employment opportunities and economic inclusion, are increasingly finding themselves used as tools of intimidation in political wars that offer them no future.

Kenya’s leaders must confront an uncomfortable truth. If the country cannot provide jobs that empower the youth, society creates an environment where desperation becomes fertile ground for manipulation. In such circumstances, being turned into a political “goon” becomes, for some, the nearest path to survival a temporary escape from poverty, but one that often leads straight into crime, violence and exploitation.

What remains deeply disturbing is how easily some leaders recruit other people’s children into these dangerous activities while protecting their own families from the very chaos they help create. It forces an important question: would these same politicians allow their own sons and daughters to stand on the frontlines of violence, intimidation and street battles in service of political interests?

The answer is painfully obvious

Many young people are promised loyalty rewards, protection, or simply made to feel important by political figures seeking praise and public displays of support. Yet beyond being used as shields and instruments of disruption, these youths receive nothing substantial that improves their lives. No jobs. No business opportunities. No long-term empowerment. Only temporary recognition in exchange for risking their safety and futures.

The tragedy is always the same. When violence erupts and these youths are injured, arrested, or even lose their lives, the very politicians who mobilised them disappear. Families are left grieving alone while those who orchestrated the chaos move on untouched.

No parent raises a child hoping they will one day become a hired political enforcer

What makes this even more urgent is the contradiction now facing the country. Speaking on Monday, June 15,2026 at State House Nairobi during the presentation of the report on the Framework for Reparations for Victims of Human Rights Violations, President William Ruto stated that compensation does not replace accountability and emphasised that the law applies equally to all citizens, police officers, and protesters, and where wrongdoing occurs, accountability must follow.

Those words now present a test for the country’s justice system

If accountability must indeed follow wrongdoing, then Kenyans deserve to know whether the same principle will apply to those who organise, mobilise, finance or encourage political violence carried out by groups of hired youth.

The law cannot selectively punish only those at the bottom while ignoring those pulling the strings from positions of power.

As the country moves closer to the 2027 General Election, Kenya faces a critical choice. Leaders can continue normalising the exploitation of vulnerable youth for political survival, or begin investing in policies that give young people dignity, employment and purpose.

Kenyan youth are not disposable political tools

They deserve to be treated with the same value and protection every leader reserves for their own children.

And if the country is serious about justice, then accountability should not stop with the youth on the streets. It must reach those who send them there in the first place.