Globally, youth-led protest movements are no longer sporadic flare-ups of discontent but increasingly durable political phenomena with regional and global implications.

From the Arab Spring to the “End SARS” protests in Nigeria and the recent “Reject Finance Bill 2024” mobilisations in Kenya, youth are asserting themselves as powerful actors shaping not only domestic politics but also foreign policy narratives.  

For governments and foreign policy technocrats, this poses a strategic dilemma: should youth revolutions be viewed as threats to national stability or as expressions of democratic energy?

For Kenya in particular, a country that positions itself as a regional anchor state, democracy promoter, and multilateral champion, the answer to this question will shape both its internal legitimacy and its external diplomatic posture. 

In Africa, where over 60 per cent of the population is under 25, youth uprisings carry even greater demographic and moral weight.

They have exposed the limits of post-colonial governance models that have failed to deliver jobs, responsive governance, or equitable development.

Importantly, these movements carry implications for international relations, shift perceptions of a state, and influence the partnerships to be prioritised and the construction of legitimacy globally. 

There are various foreign policy dimensions of youth protests. The first has to do with image and soft power. How a state treats its youth protest movements directly impacts its global reputation.

Countries that respond with excessive force or censorship damage their democratic credentials.  

The second dimension has to do with strategic alignments. Increasingly, the youth are shaping foreign policy discourse in Africa – for instance, when criticising debt-ridden, China-funded megaprojects like they did in Zambia (Lusaka–Ndola dual carriageway), leading to a policy shift toward debt restructuring and Western partnerships.  

The third dimension involves transnational spillovers. Youth-led movements, like hashtags, spill across borders. Responses to protests now increasingly inform how regional blocs like the African Union and international partners relate to a country diplomatically and economically. 

One of the most under-explored areas in Kenya’s foreign policy architecture is the direct link between diplomatic strategy and youth employment. Kenya’s foreign policy should evolve into a youth-centric economic tool.

Recognising that the Gen Z-led protests sprang from jobless frustration, diplomacy should actively expand rights-based labour mobility pacts beyond domestic work to include IT specialists, hospitality graduates and artisans, learning from the Philippines’ remittance-driven overseas employment success.  

Equally, Kenya should deliberately link trade agreements such as the Kenya–UK Economic Partnership Agreement and AGOA to domestic industrial growth that scales job-rich Export Processing Zones in regions like Kisumu, Kakamega, Kisii and Mombasa. Further, the Foreign Ministry should engage in tech diplomacy with innovation leaders such as India, South Korea and Estonia to unlock Konza Technopolis and Ajira Digital’s full potential.  

Finally, nearer home, Kenya should aggressively pursue the acceleration of East African Community integration by finalising the Labour Mobility Protocol to open regulated regional opportunities for young teachers, engineers, health workers and ICT professionals across Uganda, Rwanda, the DRC and South Sudan. 

Kenya can turn the 2024 youth protests into an economic reset by anchoring foreign policy on job creation, threading youth employment into every treaty and deal, linking embassies to county-level priorities via a jobs blueprint, and forming a youth foreign policy advisory council that will engage in auditing all labour MOUs for youth alignment, because the surest antidote to unrest is opportunity with dignity.  

The writer is a foreign policy Analyst and PhD Candidate in international studies