State's heavy-handedness is to blame for youths' rising anger

Protestors demand justice for the late teacher and blogger Albert Ojwang, along Waiyaki Way, Nairobi, on June 17, 2025. Ojwang died in custody at Central Police Station. [Kanyiri Wahito, Standard]

With the first anniversary of the June 25 demonstrations being Wednesday, many youths as well as older generations are in a state of mourning, even as they recognise the monumental day last year when they dared to march into Parliament and have their voices heard. In the long year since this day, however, it has felt as if the more things have changed, the more they have remained the same. What once felt like an accomplished dream with the quashing of the Finance Bill 2024, has now become a dream deferred.

Even though the Finance Bill itself was set aside, in the following months, many of the laws it proposed were passed through the cover of other independent Bills, making it hard to track these movements, and essentially proving that the President’s guarantee that he had heard the youth was nothing but hot air.

As well, since then, the femicide and police brutality crises have escalated greatly, with bodies having been discovered in the Kware dumpsite in Nairobi shortly after the protests of 2024, and police ruthlessly abducting and murdering those who dared then and now to speak up or peacefully protest. Whilst many expected that the promises of the ruling elite would somehow be kept, what has followed has been one grief after the other, with no seeming end in sight.

Today, matters seem to have hit a fever pitch. Exacerbating the anger from the murder of Albert Ojwang and the peaceful protests that ensued was the point-blank shooting by a policeman of Boniface Kariuki, a man who eked out a living by selling face masks, during a protest against police brutality last Tuesday. Clearly, when the youth responded to attacks on their lives and livelihoods by returning to the streets, the government, rather than understand their ire, ramped up its actions of brutality by calling upon armed militias to disturb peaceful protests.

These militias, working together with the police, ensured that the people did not exercise their constitutional right to protest. And so, what had once been a feeling of dreams deferred has escalated, in light of tomorrow’s anniversary, into a moment of unbridled anger, with the people determined to continue with their protest against a rogue government that works harder at murdering its children than securing their futures.

It is all too clear that the government, through its devolved arms, neither understands the purpose of peaceful protests nor the government’s role in them. It is understandable that police brutality would be met with so much anger, and the protests would have presented a moment for healing and change. Instead, the government has decided to meet righteous ire with even more brutality, and what makes it more ironic is that even the armed militias, summoned by the government with the aid of the police, have not been paid.

It is therefore not beyond the limits of imagination to expect that Wednesday’s protests will likely be similarly chaotic if the government continues to retaliate against constitutional rights with sheer unconstitutionalism and criminality. It would behoove the government to rethink its approach if peace is to be restored in the city and country at large. That the government is utilising extrajudicial means to counter protests is a clear indication that there will not be peace anytime soon.

What does the future of our country hold beyond Wednesday? If the youth are to be asked, it holds a horrific yet optimistic promise. Perhaps, if the government were to be asked, the future entails a ramping up of dictatorial, oppressive conditions so that opposing voices can be silenced once and for all. The citizenry can only hope that the collective government cools its head for the sake of the peace and stability of the nation.

Ms Gitahi is an international lawyer