Prof Mutua knows only too well that blood money mocks justice

Human rights activists in Mombasa carry a symbolic coffin during a procession commemorating the second anniversary of the Gen Z protests on June 25, 2026. [Robert Menza, Standard]

History often returns to mock us. For, we were young people, barely out of our teenage years in the early 1980s, fighting for a free, fair and democratic society.

We said we wanted democracy and justice. We were domiciled at the University of Nairobi, where we called ourselves “budding intellectuals” and “scholars”.