The path to the revolutionary protests witnessed in Kenya this year has been clear, was all along but we have a political class living in the far end of the galaxy in a place Elon Musk is yet to discover.
Perfectly expected of them on the background of the ‘soft life’ they lead, the citizen class pampered their political leaders to the extent of walling them from ground realities.
Gleefully, our Gen Z population has began that tough journey of head-hitting waheshimiwas and their freeloaders back to reality. Head hitting for nothing less of a rough disruption would have jetted the holidaying public leaders back to the country. And that action, through revolutionary agitation, has taken place over a 10-year period. Frustrations, hopelessness, dejection, and anger slowly simmered and here we are!
During President Mwai Kibaki’s administration 2003-2013, young people had a predictable career growth pattern. A Kenyan could get out of college and directly transit into a job strictly within their academic line. Promotions would start after a 2–4-year gap into their career, creating a solid professional in their late twenties.
The young Kenyan would grow into someone who could take care of a family, access investment credit, and comfortably clear ‘black tax’ in the form of cushioning their siblings from life’s fierce vagaries. This development implied enough growth space for all.
Non-graduates could manage businesses and achieve healthy competition. It is the time when young people running boda boda businesses materialized such dreams as building permanent houses. This golden era still had employers absorbing employees on the sole basis of professional certificates.
Remember CPA, CICT, and CPS courses administered by KASNEB? Anybody could easily fit within an environment they got into from a professional or investment standpoint. We even had a boom around native hospitality options inclusive of the endless nyama choma joints such as Kamakis along the Eastern Bypass. The future was predictable and everyone remained safe to design ambitions and access energy to materialize them.
In 2014, it became clear that the UhuRuto’s government was bound to drive the country on the wrong lane. Only that Kenyans did not realize the vague reality lived by the drivers and the speed with which they intentioned to accelerate in that wrong lane.
The regime imagined that drawing ‘visionary’ public infrastructure formed Kibaki’s magic band. After all, if Thika Road revolutionized lifestyles along that corridor, the standard gauge railway (SGR) could revolutionize the country from Mlolongo to Voi. Armed with unmatched bravado, peerless boastfulness, and backstreet kifua, the ruling political class went ahead on a projects’ launching spree without a care on fiduciary sobriety.
Large scale projects rest on balanced arithmetic including costs, sources of funds, and the value rendered Vis a vis the costs. UhuRuto administration simply wanted the projects done. No conscious evaluation of loan sources, zero consideration of precise expected value, and priority considerations.
Again, men and women surrounding the regime were more ambitious than a Komodo dragon targeting a buffalo. Kickbacks, now held in percentages, spiralled project costs. Other than the few nationally advertised items, the rest were readily awarded to cronies and political brokers. All the activities deleted the Mwananchi. It was a deal making government, and as long as the SGR was visible, citizens could hike to hell.
Pursue education or not, future remains uncertain; get into business or not, future remains uncertain; faithfully work for the government till old age, pensions remain uncertain. The only thing certain is that you will get filthy rich in a very short time if you join senior public leadership ranks.
Diminishing fair play in business collapsed may small and medium enterprises (SMEs). During Kibaki’s time, young people could easily get procurement tenders to supply manageable items and provide services. They could use local purchase orders (LPOs) and local service orders (LSOs) to service these contracts.
The reference to cronies and freeloaders eliminated such development. Arrogance from the top cascaded downwards to county levels. Grand corruption equally starved public facilities of easily accessible finances to pay suppliers and contractors. Our painful absorption of ‘pending bills’ as a reality had begun. As at February, 2024, Kenya’s pending bills stood at Sh650 billion.
The definite growth pattern observed in young people was long gone. Truthfully, we still have 2014 graduates at various levels jobless, despite sending in resumes hundreds of times. Lack of opportunities at that level gets back to increased frustrations downwards all the way to learning children back to homesteads.
Pensions became a big issue to sort. Corrupt public leaders became bold. You now have to place a bribe with the amount fixed based on the service you want.
From high school spots, to all forms of employment to majority of public services, the political class forced bribery as a way of life.
Members of Parliament sitting in committees ‘discovered’ extortionist tendencies as service cultures, and never went back. Senior government officials, on the basis of influence, became richer as the rest of the nation had to do with dimming realities. Nothing is a guarantee anymore.
Pursue education or not, future remains uncertain; get into business or not, future remains uncertain; faithfully work for the government till old age, pensions remain uncertain. The only thing certain is that you will get filthy rich in a very short time if you join senior public leadership ranks.
So, GenZ are simply saying that this idea of keeping ruthless public gangsters warm with our sweat as the currency has to stop. And stop it will!
