President William Ruto’s order to the police to shoot and “break the legs” of those found looting or damaging property during protests is an affront to human rights, posing a serious threat to law and order. 

Besides violating the Constitution, the order appears to signal the sanitisation of police brutality, impunity and extrajudicial killings that led to the recent protests in the first place.

This, combined with the fact that nobody has been prosecuted for these inhuman acts.

The order suggests that the authorities have failed to address the root causes of the popular mass protests, clearly spelt out when the Gen Z went to the streets in June last year to challenge the publicly rejected 2024 Finance Bill. 

While President Ruto hastily withdrew the unpopular bill and reconstituted his Cabinet with the help of an unexpected ally in ODM leader Raila Odinga as his government tottered on the brink of collapse, the conflict with the Gen Z took an ugly turn. 

The impact of police brutality against the young protesters has left an indelible dark stain after the State security agents launched a crackdown whose repercussions are still being felt to date, when scores of young people were shot dead and dozens were abducted.  

Last week’s Saba Saba protests, in which State agencies blocked protesters from entering the Nairobi city centre and engaged in running battles with protesters on the outskirts of the city and some parts of the country, opened fresh wounds.

The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights says 115 people have been killed across the country in the past year since the 2024 protests.

Last week’s Saba Saba protests were the deadliest yet, with 32 people killed, recording the highest tally of deaths in one day. 

Although the Gen Z-inspired protests confirm the intensification of the conflict between young people and the President, they have also exposed the futility of applying police brutality to quell the will of the people in asserting their constitutional and democratic rights. 

Nor will it prevent the breakdown of law and order and the protection of lives and property, that the illegal and inhuman “shoot-to-break-legs” order that also contravenes standard police practice ostensibly insinuates. 

Barricading Nairobi central business district with layers of security checkpoints, armoured vehicles, razor wire, spike strips, boulders and crime scene tapes, obstructing healthcare workers and ambulances as thousands of armed police officers patrolled the streets, exposed President Ruto’s acute fear of dissent. 

Displaying sanctioned impish behaviour and entrenched impunity, the police, acting on “orders from above,” denied that anybody had been denied entry into the CBD! Ironically, economic experts said the police clampdown cost the Nairobi economy alone Ksh10.4 billion in one day. 

Such actions confirm one thing – Kenya has virtually turned into a police state. The State must adopt another strategy for dealing with the myriad issues raised by  Gen Z against President Ruto’s government, or else. 

Gen Z have taken the role of the “official opposition,” capturing the national mood amid inertia in Parliament, disjointed political parties and the mongrel broad-based government. 

President Ruto now finds himself in a catch-22 situation – shed any pretensions of popular democracy, or assume the title of a dictator, with its predictable consequences.  

The writer comments on national affairs