Political Activism: Which Way?

The day after Saba Saba, Jeff Koinange Live asked a simple question: is it activism or agitation, and where does it lead? On the bench were comedian and activist Eric Omondi, civic educator Morara Kebaso, UDA youth leader Omwansa M. Omwansa and Deputy Government Spokesperson Gabriel Muthuma.

Morara said the problem is that there is a lot of agitation every year but very little to show for it. The biggest issue for young people, he argued, is the economy. Graduates leave school full of hope and find no jobs. Many in his generation, he said, are not even marrying or starting families. If nothing changes, he warned, protests after 2027 will be angrier.

Omwansa took a different view. Saba Saba should be a day to honour what earlier generations fought for, he said, but it has been taken over by "greedy commercial activists" whose aim is to threaten the government and the police.

Eric Omondi, who said he had just spent three days in detention, did not mince words: "Kenyans are not okay." He accused the government of claiming credit for things it has not delivered, and questioned job creation figures when hundreds of thousands graduate every year. His free advice to the government: stop trying to be a businessman and open up the economy to investors.

Muthuma defended the government's record. Problems like a shortage of 120,000 teachers and the housing gap did not appear overnight, he said, and leaving them unsolved would only let slums grow. He pointed to affordable housing and food security as areas where solutions are under way.

It was a raw, sometimes heated conversation about who speaks for Kenya's young people, and whether the streets or the ballot box will decide what happens next.