Mon Jul 28 15:40:58 UTC 2025: ## Kenyan Youth Protests: Lessons from the Past Must Shape Future Change
**Nairobi, Kenya** – As protests led by Generation Z continue to challenge President William Ruto’s rule in Kenya, a critical question arises: will this new wave of activism achieve lasting change, or will it fall into the same traps as previous reform movements?
For months, Kenyan youth have taken to the streets, fueled by grievances against government policies and a desire for a more just and equitable society. These demonstrations, often organized through social media and characterized by a spirit of mutual aid and civic education, have drawn comparisons to the pro-democracy movements of the 1990s that ultimately led to the end of President Daniel arap Moi’s dictatorship.
While the chants of “Ruto must go” echo the “Moi must go” rallying cries of the past, analysts and observers are cautioning against repeating past mistakes. The removal of Moi, while significant, did not fundamentally alter the underlying system of power in Kenya. His successor, Mwai Kibaki, rolled back key reforms, leading to a period of political instability and ultimately, a stolen election in 2007.
Critics argue that Kenyan politics has long been characterized by a focus on acquiring power, rather than transforming the structures that enable inequality and oppression. The current calls for “national talks” and “intergenerational conclaves” are viewed with suspicion by some, who see them as attempts to defuse the protests and co-opt the movement into the existing political system.
“Ruto must go” is a powerful tactic for mobilisation and pressure. But it should not be seen as the end goal. That was my generation’s mistake. We forgot that we did not achieve the freedoms we enjoy – and that Ruto seeks to roll back – through engaging in the formal system’s rituals of elections and elite agreements but by imposing change on it from the outside. We allowed the politicians to hijack the street movements and reframe power and elite consensus as the solution, not the problem.
The key takeaway for Generation Z, they argue, is to focus on dismantling the systems that perpetuate injustice, rather than simply replacing individuals within those systems. The streets must remain a space for powerful political participation, not one to be pacified or criminalised. For its challenge to formal state power is not a threat to democracy. It is democracy.
First Piper 