Cry for justice: Anniversary rekindles Gen Zs push for change

With the second Gen Z anniversary set to be observed this Thursday, human rights groups, politicians and the clergy have intensified demands for justice and accountability as they accuse the State of failing to hold security forces to account.

A clarion call has been made. Under the banner “Justice for our Mashujaa”, several groups have secured permits to allow them the right to picket and celebrate the fallen heroes, the tens who died and others who suffered enforced disappearances through detention and abductions by State operatives.

“The national Remembrance Day is to honour our fallen heroes and demand justice, accountability and compensation from the Kenyan State that murdered them. We shall march countrywide, across all 47 counties, in remembrance of our fallen heroes as we continue the struggle for a better country. In Nairobi, we shall march to Parliament to lay flowers where our colleagues were murdered,” reads a widely circulated poster.

 “We have invited all Kenyans to join us or stay at home, no school, no work, in remembrance of the children who have been killed by the State in the past two years.  We have delivered a letter to the office of the Inspector General requesting that life and property be protected during the peaceful marches taking place across Kenya on June 25,” popular human rights activist Boniface Mwangi said.

The rights groups have lined up six demands, the first being justice and accountability.

“Investigate, arrest and prosecute all police officers and those with command responsibility for the killings and other human rights violations, including those amounting to international crimes,” they have demanded.

They are also seeking a public apology from the Government for the killings and violations committed by the State agents during Gen Z protests and for national remembrance, declare June 25 a national holiday in addition to unveiling a national monument in their honour.

The fourth point of action is access, participation and adequacy of compensation, with demands that victims and survivors must be meaningfully consulted on all elements of reparation in addition to adequate, timely, realistic and transparent compensation.

Sixth on their point is the guarantee of non-repetition, with demands for the Government to make a clear commitment that ‘never again will police kill innocent Kenyans’ and put in place concrete measures to prevent future violence by State agencies.

Human Rights Activist and VOCAL Africa Chief Executive Officer, Hussein Khalid, says the Government must have learned critical lessons from the Gen Z, which is why they have been issuing warnings and sometimes, it is against people getting together.

“It is clear they learned that Gen Z, when they decide to protest, can do it very forcefully. So, the Gen Zs have become a force to reckon with,” he told The Standard yesterday.

Khalid said they are seeking to lay wreaths outside Parliament to remember the fallen comrades and to let the government know they have not forgotten about justice.

“We have not forgotten, those killer cops are still out there… the people who took the shots are roaming scot-free and no action has been taken against them, so compensation is not a replacement for justice,” he said.

Granted, much as compensation is a welcome move, Khalid said that so must be justice, insisting that they will continue pushing, undeterred.

Saying that compensation has come at the wrong time, he stated that justice should have come first, but given the dynamics, they will just let it happen as they keenly follow.

“We are supposed to see justice before compensation, but the families need that and that is why we are letting it happen.  We are just reminding the government that we want justice and that we will not allow those killer cops to continue killing. We are seeing every other protest, people are being killed,” he regretted.

As far as Thursday is concerned, Khalid said they do not expect violent demonstrations on the streets because they have issued adequate notice and the police have guaranteed that they will even escort the protestors.

“We are hoping they will allow a peaceful protest to take place. We are not anticipating any breach of peace, but we also know that some politicians are the ones behind goons and the problem is that some police usually work hand in hand with goons,” he said.

“We do not fully trust the police, but if they keep their word, it should be a very peaceful protest.”

Amid a disquiet emerging over the compensation plan, he stated that KNCHR developed a framework and gave figures, though they consider it too low and should be doubled.

He also said Gen Z changed the political landscape in that the Government is now more responsive to issues whenever they are raised and unlike in the past, they are taken more seriously.

“Before, the government did not pay much attention to the youth; they would just ignore them whenever they raised concerns. Now, the government takes a listen. Before, the youth were not taken seriously politically because they never took their voter cards, and they never spoke out. Now, every politician must consider youth first before anything else. That has completely shifted the political landscape,” he explained.

International Commission of Jurists – Kenya (ICJ) Executive Director Demas Kiprono said 2024 was a culmination of the country’s politics and a political class not sensitive to the aspirations and the demands of the people that they should be representing.

To this end, he told the Standard that there was a tone deafness to what the people were saying, where people were demanding to be heard in hard times, and the political class was not hearing.

“Every generation has its own unique environment. The current generation of young people has a lot in terms of technology, so technology was used for the first time to organise and inform and this led to what we saw in the streets. This was really the people who are under the constitution that gives them power exercising that power,” Kiprono explained.

Be that as it may, he regretted that death, destruction and violations of human rights were witnessed.

But as this happens, he said another issue of concern, the culmination of which may be something ugly, is the use of goons and though it may not be new, it has been normalised where almost all political formations have a wing.

“We really should demand of the national intelligence, the police, and the ODPP to ensure that these people are investigated and prosecuted as a deterrence because we are going into a very dangerous period, which is the 2027 elections, we're getting into the election fever now…And history has taught us that when we start seeing certain patterns, it leads to just escalation,” he stated.

One of the critical lessons drawn from Gen Z, he says, is that people have to be heard and their plight cannot be ignored.

“I believe there are indications that are being heard, if you look at how the government is operating in terms of trying to inform people of the Bill itself. In terms of the political process of reparations, it is not an easy process. It is not one off and only about financials, it's about justice, non-repetitiveness, and so forth,” he explained.

He says Kenyans should know and exercise their rights within limits, because they have freedom of expression.

According to Kiprono, however, freedom of expression does not extend to propaganda for the vilification of others, incitement to violence and the right to protest does not extend to destruction of property, attacking others and so as long as everyone operates within their rights, everyone should be safe even as the country commemorates that period of the past.

On Sunday, the clergy demanded accountability and justice. In a service session, they accused the State of failing to hold security forces to account.

In the interdenominational prayer, there were heightened calls from families for the arrest and prosecution of perpetrators, insisting their lives have never been the same again.

“Restorative justice must never be used to cover up the need for retributive justice. Kenyans have a right to know the truth or who did what during those unfortunate moments,” said the clergy in attendance.

The President has been firm over the protests, insisting that the focus should be on development and never allow things that take Kenya backwards.

“I heard some people saying they want to shut down the country. We will defend the rights of everybody because we are a country that viciously believes in order,” Ruto said last week.

However, on Sunday, he took time to speak to the young people, urging them to make responsible decisions.

The President, who hosted thousands of young people during the 95th St John’s Ambulance annual parade and inspection in State House, condemned the loss of lives in places where young people should be protected the most.

“These past few weeks, our nation has regrettably carried the pain of losing young lives in places where children should have been served. We mourn those lives. We stand with their families and pray for the healing of those who were injured. Our young people must draw lessons from these incidents,” the President said.

The June 2024 protests came about in an unprecedented way and spread like a bushfire, and, for the first time, they redefined how demonstrations in the country are held.

It was a bruising battle by Gen Z, who did not have a single face behind it, but they bravely faced the country’s challenges, undeterred, even in the most dangerous circumstances.

As they described themselves as faceless, tribeless and leaderless, they quickly moved their anger from the usual online banters to the streets, literally.

Armed with their smartphones and flags, they showed up in droves, irked by the then Finance Bill, 2024, which they described as punitive and draconian.

Perhaps one of the most astonishing moments was the unexpected and never-before-seen or heard-before breach of Parliament, which caught the legislators unaware.

Lives were lost and scores of others maimed and as the second anniversary is observed this Thursday, questions are emerging on whether the Government learned its lessons.

In their quest to change, the Gen Z staged yet another massive campaign earlier in the year and named it the ‘Niko Kadi’ movement.

More than ever, there was a significant interest among the young people to take part in the voter registration exercise, amid accusations by Gen Z that politicians had hijacked their well-intended initiative.

In the process, the politicians, both in Government and the opposition, found themselves gradually embracing the ‘Niko Kadi” slogan, as they seek to be heard.