Generation Z rendering Raila powerless
There lived a just and devout man in Jerusalem called Simeon. God postponed his demise so that he could see the Messiah, and when the day came, he said, “Lord, now let your servant depart in peace.”
Raila Odinga has been the face of protests in Kenya since the beginning of agitation for multiparty in the early 90s. He’s the only person who can declare an illegal holiday, and it happens by hook or crook. Following the Gen Z protests, he’s now poised to exit the stage.
Protests had handed Agwambo power. His time to exit the stage is due. Like the biblical Simeon, Raila can as well rest, not by going to Addis Ababa but by letting the young Kenyans take over.
Generation Z have given a new meaning to protests. They’ve dignified it. They’re armless and harmless. They resist stones, they revolt with phones. They are apolitical and tribeless—what Kenya has been yearning for. How do you shoot such? Even the police are waiting for a signal on how to handle protesters who share water with them.
If President William Ruto, through transporting Tinga to Addis Ababa, would grant him the leeway to do whatever he desires, then he’d rather take Gen Z as well. Their protests are organised, coordinated online and fervently executed. To some, this is fun. Perhaps, Gen Z is what William Buttler Yeats described in his 1916 Poem, Easter, as “a terrible beauty is born.” This is indeed the birth of beautiful protests, which, unless controlled, could result in a revolution. This is a strong message to our political class that egocentric party politics of chest-thumping is over. The people have regained their position as employers.
Alas! Should the government underestimate the protests as a storm in a teacup, it will be shocked to realise that this is the poison in the cup. The greatest mistake would be to ignore even the unity of fools. Yes, these young people have taken Raila’s bargaining power: protests. Therefore, he either retires holding his head high or they will consign him to oblivion.
Moses Munoko, Advocate of the High Court, Nairobi
