Democracy without responsibility is becoming Kenya's costliest luxury

Whoever said democracy is expensive may have had Kenya in mind. As the economy suffered another shutdown this week courtesy of the Gen Z protests second anniversary, I was reminded of two separate events from my college days from two separate geographical contexts.

The first was during my orientation at the University of Nairobi’s School of Business back in 1998. The then representative of Lower Kabete campus in the Students Organization of Nairobi University, Dennis Osodo, assured us the fresh men and women of the year, that absolute freedom was guaranteed at the university. However, it was the rejoinder to that statement that has remained with me over the years.

That freedom comes with responsibility for both our individual academic work and during students riots. Whatever each one of us chose to do with our time, we must make sure that we achieved at least the 40 per cent required to pass our examination papers.

During students riots, the code was that you must find your way back into the university, and if you couldn’t, then find the nearest police station for cover from rioting police. Finding cover in a police station sounded like twisted logic, but in such circumstances, it might be necessary for self-preservation. Officers are human too!  

Leadership conscience

Years later, when I landed in China at one of their premier universities in economics, the first thing that any foreign student quickly became aware of was a country that was acutely aware of her stage of development. Despite catapulting into the second largest economy in the world by Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the Chinese professors and policy makers were not fooled by their stage of development based on per capita incomes and other key developmental indicators at the household level.

The net effect of this awareness is that both political and policymakers are ordinarily quite considerate and responsible in the choices they make on behalf of the Chinese people.

In our case, political leaders lavish on luxury jets, state-of-the-art cars and exotic personal tastes either on taxpayers' bill or from sources that cannot be matched with their legitimate known income sources. Besides, while they demand that citizens account for every single penny in taxes, their lived opulence and public show of wealth does not match the taxes they flaunt in public to claim compliance.

That begs the question: do our leaders have any conscience within the bounds of basic human decency? For instance, regardless of whether you are in government or the opposition, how much cost can the Kenyan economy bleed in its current state before breaking it to irredeemable levels? In this second half of the fiscal year, there are several days that businesses have been shut and schools opted to keep learners at home for uncalled for tensions around the city. This is in addition to other public holidays.

The Kenya Private Sector Alliance estimates that protests costs the economy about Sh3 billion a day in lost productivity and subdued business activity. In extreme cases where properties are damaged and goons infiltrate the protests, they estimate the cost could be as high as Sh10 billion a day besides innocent lives that get lost. Given the high level of informality of the economy, the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises suffer most.

The pain is not born by the private economic units only, both the national and county government suffer a lot in lost taxes and revenues like parking and market fees. Public infrastructure destroyed in protests add to the public costs of unending protests. The opportunity costs include lost investor confidence and negative publicity for sensitive sectors like tourism.

Reflecting on the circumstances preceding Thursday’s shutdown, it is difficult to justify closing the capital city. To be fair, post the 2024 defilement of Parliament by the Gen Z, various committees of Parliament have been more restrained in tax measures and other high public interest motions presented before them.

For example, the Budget Appropriation and the Finance Committees of Parliament have disclosed all submissions that have been made to them through official channels during public hearings post 2024. In each case, they have provided a summary of what was submitted before them, what they agreed with, what they disagreed with and the reasons for each position that they took thereof.

For instance, the Finance and National Planning committee rejected majority of aggressive tax and tax administration proposals that had been recommended by Treasury in Finance Bill 2026 (now Finance Act 2026). If anyone doubts this, then refer to the committee’s report submitted to the house dated June 16, 2026. Implicitly, the sacrifices of the Gen Z and the gallant martyrs of the revolution were not in vain.

Unfortunately, their victory has been hijacked by octogenarian political elites to buy relevance in the coming general election. The opposition brigade cannot claim to be the voice of Gen Z. They should have left Gen  Z mourn their fallen soldiers in their own way and terms. For the record, I tracked the 2024 revolution and the Gen Z relied largely on social media platforms to mobilize, organize and coordinate the execution of their street protests. The X platform was their preferred and most lethal outlet for mobilization.

There is no evidence in any social media platform that Gen Z had any organized plans or coordinated mobilization for street protests on Thursday. For the security apparatus to claim intelligence information as justification for closing main highways and thus effectively shutting citizens from going about their economic activities is a fiction of imagination.

When Gen Z were properly in the streets, their millennial and Gen X parents knew about their whereabouts, provided logistical support, facilitated them with resources and opened their gates for cover if and when it became absolutely necessary. Even officers met their own children in the streets.

Can any of these be said of this year’s event? How incompetent can our security apparatus be to lack capacity to facilitate civil society actors and families of the Gen Z heroes to go lay wreaths at Parliament building in honor of their departed without shutting the city’s economic ecosystem?

In his official X handle, Boniface Mwangi shared their itinerary, what commemorators needed to bring along and clearly stated once they laid the wreaths, everyone goes home. What then informed the police to mount a complete embargo for travelers going about their normal businesses?

The antidote

As this column has opined before, the single largest weapon against the current extractive and dynastic political institutions is a united Gen-Z voting machinery that must show-up at a gazetted poling station on August 10, 2027.

The Gen Z themselves must reject tribal bigotry of their parents/grandparents around elections, decline invitations of tribal political lords who lead village kiosks in the name of political parties and demonstrate extreme distaste for political handouts from thieves who’ve robbed them of their own future.

In the absence of such disciplined code, the Gen-Z generation can as well accept a similar fate like the rest of us. For avoidance of doubt, you must drain the entire swamp and establish a new political order that resonates with your aspirations, inclusivity and the Kenya we can all be proud of.

If you achieve this dear Gen Z, you’ll have secured a special place for your generation in the annals of history. My generation tried back in 2002!