The liberation of any people depends on who is standing on the front lines of its struggle. For South Africa it was Nelson Mandela and for Kenya, though still hotly debated, it was Jomo Kenyatta who sneakily “led” the country to independence. Over six decades after becoming a republic, Kenya still languishes in the shadow of neo-colonialism. Corrupt, nepotistic and a fascist “democracy” are all terms that can be used to describe the state of the nation in the past few years. Power is held by two major tribes, the Kikuyu who are from the Bantu Speaking Group in Central Kenya, and the Kalenjin who are from the Nilotic Speaking Group in the former Rift Valley province. Both groups have taken turns ruling the country, always ensuring their tribesmen are in government and their power absolute.

Kenyan youth, through history, have rarely had their say in government. This was patently obvious in the previous general elections which saw William Ruto win the presidency where less than 5% of Kenyan youth actively participated in voting. The fact that we, the youth, have grown up under a regime of political dynasties where the same leaders are cycled through different government offices backed up by stolen elections, has created a country of youths who have no hope. If you asked any of us about the elections, the most popular answer would likely be: “I don’t bother myself with politics because we can’t change it.” Two months before the bill was publicised, Citizen TV Media Station hosted an interview with finance experts explaining the process leading up to the passing of the 2024 Finance bill, while discussing what to expect. Unlike 2023, when the public was made aware of the bill and public participation was enforced, very few youth were involved in public consultations. This means the 2024 finance bill was already on its way to parliament for the first reading by the time much of the public was made aware of its existence. This was enough to rile up the country’s Gen Z for a movement that would be unforgettable in Kenya’s history. Fast forward a few weeks, and the prevailing discourse among young people shifted from daily conversations about partying and bullying each other on X, to topics that were more politically driven, focusing on the 2024 finance bill. 

May 2024 was when conversation about the finance bill really started to become popular online. Famous influencers like Mike Muchiri started by criticizing the 2023 bill, which included a Housing Levy Tax that was passed following a year of heavy taxation. This was the final blow that forced the country to pay attention to what the 2024 bill contained. Further, he took the initiative to create a TikTok channel that included people from all 47 ethnic tribes in Kenya with the aim of breaking down the bill in ways that would make it easy for the common Kenyan to understand. X users followed suit, with numerous influencers such as Kasmuel McOure speaking out about the issues the bill had. It was clear that there was a paradigm shift in our participation in the country’s governance. 

What followed was a ripple effect. Gen-Z users on X created FinanceGPT, a limited online copy of AI application ChatGPT which was coded to break down the Finance Bill details for easier understanding. This lead to the start of the #RejectFinanceBill2024 online movement, which attracted so much attention the Kenyan Government censored the hashtag with spam bots and paid influencers who were “siding” with them. 

But all attempts by the government to try and sabotage the #RejectFinanceBill2024 movement only led to its increased relevance, with almost every Kenyan on X using the hashtag in all of their tweets. This further pushed the issue into the massive Tiktok community, resulting in the inclusion of Millenials and Gen Alpha in the conversation. The explosion of this early grassroots resistance fuelled the government’s anger towards its young citizens, leading to the introduction of the popular phrase and movement “Leta number tumsalimie” translating to “bring the leaders numbers, we say hi.” Kenyans spammed corrupt leaders with calls, text messages and even WhatsApp messages, trying to hold them accountable for their actions. Members of Parliament were spammed on almost every platform, as citizens urged them to vote no and drop the bill. In response, some government leaders sent back abusive texts and told people to work hard so they could afford the heavy taxation. This flagrant display of government corruption ignited a new kind of fire among Kenyan citizens, pushing them to embark on nationwide protests to further push the #RejectFinanceBill2024 movement.

For his part, current president William Ruto Samoei, urged the Kenyan National Assembly to pass the recommended bill regardless of what Kenyans demanded. This pronouncement was followed by the first peaceful mass protest, “Tokea Tuesday,” held on Tuesday, June 18. The results of that protest were positive, despite the police using brutal force by deploying teargas canisters, water cannon trucks, beating peaceful protesters, shooting rubber bullets and arresting innocent people who were exercising their democratic rights under Article 37 of Kenya’s constitution. 

This incident showed the disconnect between the Kenyan people and our leaders, as the proposed finance bill was set to heavily burden everyday Kenyans with high taxes, making life in the country unbearable. The bill was set to introduce a Motor Vehicle Tax with a rate of 2.5%, a Withholding Tax on goods supplied on public entities with rates of 3% on residents and 5% on non-residents, a new tax on the digital economy where anyone who monetizes digital content is taxed at a rate of 5% for residents and 20% for non-residents, and a Significant Economic Presence tax at 30% for certain non-residents, a replacement for the National Health Fund Insurance (NHIF) which is the SHIF (Social Health Insurance Fund). The already-existing post-retirement medical funds together with the ‘affordable’ housing levy would now become deductible funds, a staggering increase in the VAT (Value Added Tax), along with a tax on diapers, sanitary pads among other imported manufactured goods together with ancestral land. The amendments on the Lands Act of 2022 would force citizens to pay taxes for land inherited from family. This is merely a glance at the gruesome Finance Bill of 2024, proposed to improve the economy but instead seeming to be a way of improving the top government’s way of life and of funding weekly tours around the world for elected officials.

On Thursday June 20, the second wave of the #RejectFinanceBill2024 movement took off, which ultimately led to bloodshed within the Nairobi Central Business District. Protesters were subjected to unspeakable brutality from the National Police Service as thousands of Gen Z youth turned up adorned in black, marching through the streets chanting “We are peaceful,” while holding placards that expressed their grievances about the bill. But despite the bleak circumstances, the young people present at the protests found ways to be joyful, singing the popular protest anthem “Anguka Nayo,” while dancing and resisting unlawful arrests. In the evening, the police sent out plain clothes officers who shot at random civilians regardless of whether they were part of the march or were simply outside going about their day. During the march, hundreds were injured and two casualties, Rex Masai and Evans Kiraitu, succumbed to injuries from live bullets. “They sent goons who looted shops to make it look like we were at fault,” said George Kihoti, who was one of the protesters. “Afterwards they sent undercover police who sprayed live bullets at everyone causing confusion.”

We expected the Cabinet Secretaries, who are Ruto’s right hand men, to condemn the brutality after the loss of lives. Instead they mocked us telling us they have been in our position before, calling the protests useless and bearing no fruits. Those who are supposed to advise the president on the situation of the country instead turned their backs on Kenyan youth. 

As the bill approached its third and final reading before the president signed off on June 27, Kenyans coined the term “Seven Days Of Rage,” and changed the hashtag from #RejectFinanceBill2024 to #OccupyParliament. This was a call to all youth within the country to come out and show their disapproval of the Finance Bill. Towns were filled with water dyed pink and green by police water cannon lorries throughout the week as the protesters showed up in massive numbers. 

On June 27, 196 Members Of Parliament voted for the bill while 105 voted against it. This enraged Kenyan youth, causing the protests to turn violent as paid goons infiltrated the formerly peaceful demonstrations. This caused widespread confusion, leading to looting and destruction of both private and public property and the storming and infiltration of the Kenyan parliament. Police followed this with snipers and live ammunition, blood and brains scattering outside the parliament building. Still, the young people who had just survived the frontlines of this bloody incident took care of the deceased by covering them with the Kenyan Flags while singing the national anthem, throwing their arms in the air. At the same time, police fired teargas canisters at both the deceased in the street and the protestors trying to retrieve their bodies. “It was disheartening,” George Macharia, a protester who was on the frontline said of the massacre. “We watched the brains of one of our agemates smear on parliament road. The same parliament that is supposed to defend us.”

Meanwhile, Ruto – who is both a darling of the West and a pathological liar – denied that lives were lost, calling the Gen Z protesters spoiled brats while cabinet secretaries spoke down on them, mocking them for coming out to the protests with Keringet bottles of waters (Kerigent is a mineral water company  that is associated with the middle and upper classes in Kenya), driven by Ubers and having lunch breaks at KFC. The night the bill was passed, the National Police Service, aided by the country’s Special Teams, went to the city of Githurai situated along Thika Road and fired live rounds of ammunition at residents there. The resulting  casualties were those seen in videos of the police dragging dead bodies into lorries with no registration plates. Those bodies are still being found in different locations around the country, as the government attempts to mask the number of casualties. This was termed as the “Githurai Massacre,” soon followed by the “Rongai incident,” where police again shot multiple rounds at peaceful protestors and random civilians, including two children aged 9 and 12 who were just going to the shops. 

In the aftermath of the unrest, Ruto stated that the bill would need to be revised, but Kenyans are in doubt. In Kenya there is a law that states if a bill is not passed in parliament, the parliament has 14 days to revise the bill and incase of no agreement, the bill will automatically be passed. At the moment, the Finance Bill was set to be amended and unfortunately no one knows where the bill stands. While conversing with different Kenyans you hear a variation of answers but the most common one is, the bill was already passed and the president pulled a PR stunt by “recalling” the bill. There have been noticeable changes in the cost of living in some areas, the price of a single stick of cigarettes was increased by  5/= making the cheapest pack 300/=. A 100/=increase. Groceries, commuting fares and even food prices have slowly been appreciating. 

The pressure of this grassroots movement powered by Kenyan Gen Zs, has caused the entire continent to pay attention to our requests. While the president asked for dialogue between Gen Z leaders and himself, he stood shocked after he found out the protests were leaderless: we all came out to the streets to demand that the bill be cancelled not because we were organised by a union, but because we were tired of living under a corrupt leader while taking on heavy taxations. Ruto was ultimately forced to dissolve the same cabinet that mocked us for our attempt to #RejectTheBill. 

Thanks to the iPhones, KFC and Uber service the government tried to disparage, we made it happen. The last time the Kenyan cabinet was dissolved was in 2005 when the country’s third president, the late Mwai Kibaki, lost a referendum over a new constitution. While Kibaki’s move was the  result of him having no confidence in his government, Ruto had been under pressure defending his government despite the anti-tax campaigns. 

With that said, the fires of resistance still rage on, as Kenyan Gen Z youth demand the dissolution of unconstitutional offices such as the Office of the Prime Cabinet Secretary. Gen Z also continues to look into further government bills as the weight of the previous mass protests sits heavy in the country’s heart.  In the weeks after the dissolution of cabinet, the Kenyan youth are faced with another conundrum. While the president put on the facade that he had listened to the youth, behind their backs he had been trying to squash the protests. Ultimately, the Finance Bill 2024 was passed and new members were appointed to the cabinet, but to everyone’s shock it was a repetition of leaders who are incompetent full of embezzlement cases and drug cases. Just like Kenyan rapper Octopizzo said “The Movement is on!”