Crushing defiance and ignoring graft sends the wrong message

Youth during Gen-Z anniversary protesters along Kenyatta Avenue, Nairobi, on June 25, 2025.   [Kanyiri Wahito, Standard]

The events of June 25 when Gen Z-led protests erupted across most Kenyan counties are etched in the national psyche as both tragic and telling. What began as a commemorative protest, marking the one-year anniversary of over 60 young people who died during the Finance Bill 2024 demonstrations, devolved into confrontation, leaving more lives lost, hundreds injured, and property worth millions destroyed. The government’s swift declaration that the protests were an attempted coup, orchestrated by paid agents, shifted the narrative from remembrance to rebellion. Yet beneath this pivot lies a deeper national contradiction, one we must confront with intellectual honesty and moral clarity.

The cost of violent protests is immediate and visible; young lives cut short, trauma, economic paralysis, and property destruction. But so too is the cost of unchecked mega corruption, except its effects are often slower, quieter, and more far-reaching. Both undermine public trust, both hollow out national resilience, and both perpetuate suffering among ordinary citizens. Kenya must come to terms with the fact that the silent violence of corruption can be just as devastating as chaos in the streets.