On June 25, President William Ruto faces a tough test as Kenya prepares for the June 25 Gen-Z second anniversary.

The government has adopted a hardline posture against planned demonstrations, yet critics warn that how Ruto’s administration responds could deepen youth anger and breathe new life into a movement that has already reshaped Kenya’s political landscape.

The Gen-Z movement remains without a ‘substantive’ igurehead, greatly undermining the government’s eforts to initiate talks with the youth or even to propose a power-sharing arrangement with them.

This is a politically sensitive moment, with memories of the last two years’ youth-led protests still fresh.

What began as opposition to the Finance Bill evolved into a wider expression of frustration among young Kenyans over governance, accountability, unemployment and the rising cost of living.

Planned protest

While the government is seemingly focusing on watering down the planned protest feigning risk of violence, critics argue that the administration is running away from bearing the liabilities.

They have even dismissed the reparation plans for victims of human rights violations during previous protests as proposed by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR), saying it is a political tool for 2027 polls.

The victims’ advocate, lawyer Njanja Maina, terms the reparation plan an act of self-sanitisation pre-2027 elections, which is politically motivated.

“Last year, he said that there was no budget for this reparations programme before it was oicially launched. If it mattered, a supplementary budget could have been passed before Parliament. Nothing like that happened,” Maina says.

Lawyer Maina says even under the period under consideration, a lot more deserving victims were left out in the list compiled by KNCHR, as the mode of presenting the required information did not favour them.

“Some people live in remote areas and have no access to social media presence, yet the burden is left on them to come to KNCHR or to contact KNCHR. The commission should have travelled countrywide and involved the county governments,” she adds.

“This is a very lawed process. It is clearly meant to whitewash and sanitise the ills that have been committed by this government, which is unacceptable.”

Ruto and his allies are convinced that the security of the country will be compromised, as there is a likelihood of gangs iniltrating the lawful protests on Thursday.

Containment measures

However, from the pro-government leaders’ talk, it is evident that the security agencies manning the protests will unsparingly resort to using excessive force as a containment measure, a move that would birth more victims of human rights violation.

Since last week, the government has been talking tough, insisting that it will not allow violent protests that infringe on the rights of other non-protesting Kenyans, but without disclosing how it will allow the youth to commemorate their colleagues on the same streets where they were brutally killed.

But the President inds himself in a ix following the insurgency of goons who have been spotted working side by side with police during protests and political raids, while armed with crude weapons.

Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen has publicly admitted that the gangs are inanced by elected leaders, some of whom are currently serving in Parliament, but the government has failed to apprehend the suspected politicians, even when their acts are fueling insecurity.

Surprisingly, when he appeared on a TV show on Monday night, Murkomen almost ‘endorsed’ the involvement of gangs in containing protests alongside the police, saying that at times the law enforcers could be overwhelmed by the demonstrators.

“When you see police walking side by side with club-wielding goons, they are restraining themselves from confrontation that could be more catastrophic as they wait for reinforcement. If they violently respond to the situations, they can be killed and their vehicles burned,” CS Murkomen said when clips of goons working in cahoots with the police in past protests were shown to him.

First anniversary

The goonism being witnessed is not just by politicians, as Murkomen alleged.

Last year, during the irst anniversary, shop owners in some parts of Nairobi Central Business District (CBD) said they had hired the goons to provide security for their premises to curb looting and destruction of property synonymous with the 2024 protests.

Government is seeing the opposition’s hand in the whole Gen-Z anniversary issue rather than an independently organised youngsters’ event to compel the government to address persistent social-economic hardships, including unemployment, as they honour their agemates who died as they pursued the course two years ago.

Last week, President Ruto while attending a youth event at Kenya School of Government, Lower Kabete warned them against being used as conduits of violence as they engage in the planned protests while disrupting the lives of other Kenyans.

“One thing that should not happen is people being mobilised to destroy property or to cause chaos and mayhem. That will not happen,” the President said.

Since the irst Gen-Z protests, Wiper Patriotic Front leader Kalonzo Musyoka has been accusing the government of state-sponsored repression of dissent through goons and excessive use of police force, which also targets public rallies and other events organised by the united opposition.

According to Kalonzo, the attack on a group of Kenyans gathered at All Saints Cathedral for a budget analysis meeting only conirmed what he had been saying all through and heightened his fears over what would happen on June 25.

STATE ADVISORY

Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen has publicly admitted that the gangs are financed by elected leaders