Gachagua: Activist Rose Njeri's arrest shows state silencing GenZ voices

Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua. [File, Standard]

Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has accused the government of targeting young people, saying the arrest of software developer Rose Njeri over a tool opposing the Finance Bill 2025 was an attempt to crush civic expression.

Njeri, a software developer in Nairobi, built a digital platform allowing citizens to submit objections to the proposed Finance Bill.

The site was taken offline last week, and Njeri was reportedly taken into custody by plainclothes officers.

She remains in custody at Pangani Police Station, where she is expected to be arraigned in court on Tuesday, June 4.

“This government has learnt nothing from the GenZ protests,” said Gachagua in a post on social media.

 “Rather than embrace dialogue, it is using fear and intimidation to silence those who speak up,” he added on Monday, June 2.

Gachagua said Njeri’s innovation should have been celebrated, not punished.

“She built a tool to help Kenyans engage their leaders peacefully, yet the state responded with repression,” noted Gachagua.

 

Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen recently proposed criminalising what he called “fake abductions,” sparking concern from activists and opposition figures who said the move could be used to discredit and prosecute victims of state-enforced disappearances.

Gachagua questioned the government’s motives.

“Who decides what is fake when the same administration dismissed abductions as hoaxes, only to admit the truth under pressure?” he added.

The Finance Bill 2025 has sparked growing online resistance, with youth-led movements calling it punitive and out of touch.

Last year’s demonstrations against the Finance Bill 2024 drew thousands of young protesters across major towns, leading to dozens of arrests.

Gachagua called on the public to speak up against what he described as a dangerous slide toward authoritarianism.

“We must defend the right to protest and speak without fear. Today it is Rose, tomorrow it could be any one of us,” noted Gachagua.