President William Ruto could be forced to craft an elaborate strategy to manage the Generation Z revolt despite enjoying the backing of Azimio leader Raila Odinga.
On Tuesday, Raila supported President Ruto’s call for a national dialogue to find solutions to the country’s challenges, including a raft of demands tabled by Gen Z during their protest.
However, it appears that the road to the Multi-Sectoral Forum could be bumpy and unpredictable given the tough stance taken by Gen Z unless President Ruto finds another formula to the table.
The youth rejected the move by President Ruto to co-opt political players in a planned forum aimed at addressing issues raised by Gen Z in the wake of the group’s demonstrations.
In a terse but hard-hitting statement on Tuesday, the youth accused the former premier of attempting to hijack their movement by siding with their oppressors.
“Dear Raila Odinga, your decision today (Tuesday), to stand with our oppressors validated our choice of not wanting you involved in our protests from the beginning,” read in part the statement.
“We will not allow you to hijack our movement to satisfy your political greed. You do not speak for us and today you have shown that you stand with the thieves and killers. We will not be silenced. We will drain the swamp with you in it. This is not business as usual.”
The clash between Raila and Gen Z escalated on Wednesday ahead of Friday’s deadline for the youths to submit names of their dialogue representatives to the government.
It is now not clear how the talks will be framed without the representation of Gen Z and if the political class would ignore them and proceed despite being allocated 50 slots.
Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna, who is also the ODM secretary general, said that Raila will not be speaking for Gen Zs, in the dialogue talks next week.
Sifuna said that Gen Zs had already said they are partyless and that will be speaking on behalf of a constituency that he leads including ODM.
“Baba (Raila Odinga) did not say he was going to speak on behalf of Gen Z. Gen Z said they are leaderless, and he is not their leader. But Baba has people he is leading, not everyone is leaderless or partyless," he said.
"I have a party and I'm the secretary general and we also have a stake in this country. We cannot just sit and be quiet when things are happening in the country."
The rejection of the talks by Gen Z could throw Ruto into a complex political dilemma even as he tries to navigate the current crisis without offending either political players or Gen Z.
It was expected that Raila’s backing would like it has happened in the past, would have seen President Ruto easily steady the country from the brink of a disaster.
"Dialogue is the way forward out of the crisis we're having in our country," Raila said at KICC on Tuesday during a joint briefing with Ruto.
"We have agreed that we give people an opportunity to be heard, to express themselves so that a lasting solution can be found."
Raila, who has been a thorn in the flesh for governments over his whirlwind protests that shook regimes, is now fighting back allegations of cutting a deal with President Ruto.
On Wednesday, Raila met a group of youthful MPs and denied that his support for national dialogue is about a ceasefire to his social justice agitation or power deal.
‘’Nimeambiwa na hawa viongozi kwamba mumesema hamtaki handshake. Ujumbe umefika(I have been told by these leaders that you do not want a handshake. The message is home),” Raila wrote on his X account.
On the same day, Raila’s ODM issued a statement clarifying that while its leaders had traditionally called for protests, he had decided to embrace dialogue to address national issues.
In a statement on Wednesday following hours of a backlash over dialogue, the party, through Chairman John Mbadi said that the former Prime Minister did what he has always done for the country.
"In making the call, the party leader did what he always does. Raila Odinga always helps the country pull back from the precipice whenever we find ourselves there,’’ Mbadid said.
"There can be no doubt that as a country, we are at a crossroads and approaching a precipice. One of us has to be magnanimous and patriotic enough to help call the country to order.’’
The youthful generation which shocked the country with well-organised protests in the last three weeks could have challenged the country’s political establishment and dared them to a duel.
It has emerged that Gen Z’s lack of structured leadership was the reason why the government was reportedly caught off guard as the youths took the country by storm with massive countrywide protests.
Failure by the government to clearly pinpoint the youth movement’s leaders has complicated the government’s approach to penetrating their organisation with the aim of disrupting their plans.
The lack of clear leadership is also likely to complicate their representation on the negotiating table but also put President Ruto in a difficult situation.
Following Raila’s backing of President Ruto’s multi-sectoral forum to address the myriad of challenges facing Kenyans, it was expected that Gen Z would embrace the offer with open arms.
However, the young people took to social media, disowning Raila, claiming that he was not their leader, and would not represent them at the talks since they would snub the dialogue and press on with their protests.
Traditionally, such protests against the government had only been pulled by the opposition under the stewardship of Raila and other key political groupings.
However, the latest wave of protests that analysts said were largely organic by the young people changed the narrative, re-writing the country’s history of demonstrations since impendence.