According to responses on the Quora Q&A website, “times change” implies that circumstances and situations change as time goes.

As you mature, you experience different generational ideological shifts from childhood to youth and eventually old age.

Every generation looks at the preceding ones through its own lenses, viewing it as rebellious and licentious for being non-conformist. While this may be so, it calls for sobriety in determining what one can change and what one cannot. 

Kenya has achieved a first for initiating a successful revolution through the now famous Generation Z or Gen Z.

According to one definition, this demographic includes those born from around 1995 to 2012, which makes them the second-youngest generation after Gen Alpha.

These young people have pushed the government to a corner, making it to undertake concessions that one would not expect from such political greenhorns.

Kenyans have been used to big-man politics where only veterans like Raila Odinga would have shaken the powers that be to the core.

This tribeless, partyless, fearless and leaderless demographic have done the unthinkable by taking on the political elite and demanding an end to the endemic misgovernance, corruption and impunity that have bedevilled this country for decades.

The Gen Z uprising is not just a Kenyan phenomenon, though. The recent elections in the United Kingdom witnessed the election of 10 MPs from Gen Z, an increase from the previous two in the last Parliament. It shows total dissatisfaction with the status quo. Some even opine that it is a backlash against globalisation.  

Here, there is a simmering war going on between some Gen Zs and their parents. The age-old mantra of sparing the rod and spoiling the child cannot work anymore for this generation. Imagine trying to intimidate a youngster who has just inhaled teargas fumes, has been chased and clobbered by anti-riot police with truncheons, and hit squarely by water cannons.

You cannot threaten this generation enough. How do you read the riot act at home to someone showing the government the middle finger and daring menacing police to do their worst? It is not enough to condemn such behaviour or bury your head in the sand about its import. 

I go to school with and teach Gen Zs at a university. They are, indeed, a different kettle of fish. Initially, I had an issue with their apparent defiance, until my own children came of age and I had to understand where they were coming from in their unorthodox stance. Their current uprising against established authority has humbled me with some serious re-education. 

For some time, I have been cognisant of the genius that dwells in this generation. If you have watched the arts they produce, especially music, you should have been wowed by their out-of-this-world creativity. They cannot be boxed. 

Gen Z are caught between a world that their parents find hard to let go and another that they want to discover for themselves. They are the so-called digital natives who have seen it all on social media, and thus believe in themselves. 

The peer pressure to be part of the bandwagon is overwhelming. But it is a necessary evil that will open up a world of opportunity to an enchanted life. Denial that Gen Zs are not acquiescent to everything thrown at them, or that comes their way, will only aggravate an already complicated social environment.

I am not promoting defiance. I would not take it kindly from my children either. They are still youngsters who need constant guidance. Ultimately, they require understanding, love, respect and, above all, recognition that in a fast-changing world, their tender age is an asset rather than a liability.

— The writer is a PhD student in International Relations