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Nobody expected it to happen, least of all the highest authorities in the land, who were left stunned by the unprecedented spontaneous mass action by Kenyan youth.

As Parliament sat to vote on the 2024 Finance Bill, thousands of young people poured out into the streets in protest against the contentious piece of legislation.

Never in Kenya’s history have such numbers of young men and women, this one christened Generation Z, made a powerful political statement that has jolted the nation and the ruling class into serious reflection.

Angry youth took matters into their own hands upon realising the Executive and the Legislature want to enforce the bill at all costs despite massive public opposition amid a high cost of living, extreme poverty and unemployment. Analysts say the Executive has manipulated legislators to secure a parliamentary majority in a well-calculated move ensuring its will consistently prevails in the House.

Any move that deftly manoeuvres around constitutional provisions upholding the sovereignty of the people over MPs and the Executive is perceived as a sleight of hand by most Kenyans.  Indeed, that perception has been vividly witnessed in the overwhelming objection to the bill expressed during public participation in the budget-making process.

The public has a constitutional right to scrutinise proposals in the bill, including proposals on taxation, tax rates, whether to reduce taxes, the country’s debt levels and sustainability of further borrowing.

When the youth took to the streets in a massive show of people power to ‘Reject the Bill’, the only weapon they had was this right to freedom of expression enshrined in the Constitution. The authorities had better listen. Public participation in governance is a democratic right; it enhances public trust and legitimacy between citizens and government, and credibility in national financial matters. Increased trust from the public means heightened democratic legitimacy for the Executive and the Legislature.

However, both appear uncomfortable with this constitutional principle of governance anchored in citizens’ input, preferring an imposed system delivered by a manipulated legislature.

This is why it has met the opposition and the wrath of the public exercising their constitutional right to President William Ruto and Kenya Kwanza legislators’ perceived high-handedness in enforcing the bill.

Gen Z has taken the public opposition and anger to a critical level. They have exposed the vast credibility gap between the ruling elite and the populace, the so-called “hustlers” and Kenya Kwanza’s unfulfilled promises. The governing class should stop arrogantly peddling false tribalism narratives when the ethnic factor blatantly manifests in Kenyan politics, economy, governance and the electoral equation.

Protesting youth have shattered the tribal myth, dismantling tribal barriers separating them to emerge as peaceful, “tribeless”, agile, agitated, educated, technologically savvy Kenyans. They are courageously and independently emulating liberation struggle generations and those who have built Kenya’s socio-economic foundations of nationalism in ethnic diversity.

Authorities should handle this massive sophisticated young movement time bomb very carefully and refrain from unleashing police brutality on them.

Because they are asking tough questions beyond the finance bill – about tribalism and nepotism in State and public appointments, corruption in government, and fears of a slide to autocratic rule.

Gen Z has shaken Kenyan society and its rulers into critical introspection with questions that demand truthful answers.

— The writer comments on national affairs