While thousands filled the streets in protest, thousands more flocked online platforms 24-7, airing their frustrations against government and stoking the movement for change.
And they are still venting online, some sceptical of change, some believing this is a turning point, a change for the better.
In an unprecedented fusion of technology and conventional protest organising, youthful Kenyans exploited every resource available to express anger against failed establishment politics and the ills that plague society.
Also notable is how well informed the protesters have been, often using mass social media meetings to orchestrate street actions and remind demonstrators of legal limits.
There is no leader or leadership hierarchy, and that’s the way they designed their uprising.
To date, activism has largely been on the streets with organisers mobilising participants to start marches that were disrupted by police tear gas and nerve jarring from water cannons. It’s not so simple anymore.
Since the start of the protests, thousand have been converging on X spaces where every shared struggle and death emboldens others to leave home and face danger.
For example, on the eve of the historic June 25 protests, about 200,000 people logged into an X space meeting in which speakers aired raw emotions on how poor governance has failed them and their loved ones.
User Chebet Kosgei, for example, broke into tears, describing how her master’s degree has not helped. She has only sunk further into poverty while politicians and well-connected people with no education swagger with loads of cash.
“I went to the protests although my husband told me if I go out there, I may be killed. I said, ‘Let them kill me because if I’m quiet here, they will kill me eventually through this poverty’,” she said.
“There is no way we can allow them to continue belittling education like this,” Kosgei said. “People go to school and work very hard but now the illiterate are the rich, and the educated who have spent everything are told to go to menial jobs in Europe and send money home. We are even begging even for Sh100 for food. It’s sad,” she said.
Another user said he was an engineer but jobless, surviving on online writing.
In addition to the sky-rocketing cost of living, he said, his family depends on him. “I am being run into an early grave,” he said.
“It is more painful to live than to die from the police bullets,” he said on the eve of storming Parliament.
“It is unacceptable that this government only sees extracting more tax from us as the solution to the challenges we face. At the same time, they live as though they own us. I’m ready to die,” he said.
Media reports on malfeasance by officials provided fodder feeding the rage.
On Wednesday night, in another 24-hour space hosted by Kenyans in the diaspora, one group egged on protesters to mobilise and storm State House. Another group discouraged the move saying it was too dangerous and reckless.
“Marching to State House is unlawful and a court decision has already said as much. We must not do things that would be an affront to our credibility and legitimacy,” one user said. It would give law enforcement more excuse to resort to excess.
Law Society of Kenya president Faith Odhiambo told the Star the country was witnessing the birth of a vigilant activist movement. It combines education, lived-experience and social media technology to hold power-elite accountable.
“I smell an aroma of change in the air,” she said.
“It will no longer be business as usual. Things have changed and it’s for the good. Kenyans will no longer sit back and worship their leaders just because they have gun-wielding security around them or carry loads of money at the expense of what the law says,” Odhiambo said.
“What’s even more refreshing is that this new movement is staying deliberately amorphous without a single leader to minimise chances of sell-outs, being divided or getting compromised. The time for brokerage is up. It is either you perform while in public office or just sit back in your private space,” the LSK boss said.
Suba Churchill, a veteran activist who took part in the Moi-era struggle for democracy, said the current movement is poised to succeed because there are no underlying political interests.
And it’s spreading beyond Gen Z.
“We don’t have political figure heads in this fight for this or that, and that is deeply refreshing. I hope they remain so. Too bad for the government because they have awakened the middle class.”
