Beyond Gen Z protest, Kenya still remains land of promise

A burning police vehicle during demonstrations against the Finance Bill 2024 in Nairobi on June 24, 2024. [Elvis Ogina, Standard]

This has been a stress-filled week but one in which, in true Kenyan fashion, the country avoided a precipice. In Kenya's short history, we have managed to avoid such abysses in ways that can only be termed miraculous.

In 1982, Kenya almost joined the family of failed states through a military coup. The years that followed were not democratically or economically progressive, but from Africa's experience with coups, the continent is on the whole better off with incompetent civilian administrations than "revolutionary" military takeovers. The latter easily mutate into permanent and incompetent dictatorships.