Two years after the Gen Z protests of 2024, Jeff Koinange Live handed the bench to the generation that led them. On the eve of the anniversary, Jeff hosted six young Kenyans: lawyer Mohammed Abdul, Rev. Carolyn Kiarie of the ACK Thika Diocese, activist Ezekiel Kyama, advocate Jared Mugendi, Roseline Alionya, chairperson of Young Captains, and activist Alans Ademba.
Jeff began by asking each of them what they expected the next day. Their answers were strikingly similar: a peaceful commemoration of the young people who died. Roseline asked for a moment of silence on air for those lost in 2024 and 2025, and said she hoped to meet the families of the fallen and ask whether they had been able to claim compensation.
Mohammed Abdul set out what the protests had achieved and what they had not. For the first time in Kenya's history, he noted, a Finance Bill already passed by Parliament was sent back, and the Cabinet was reshuffled. But the long-term goals, fair taxation and an economy that works for its people, remain unmet. He rejected the idea that young people want conflict with the state: "A state that kills its own citizens is at odds not out of the choice of the citizens, but out of the choice of those who run the state."
Alans Ademba reminded viewers of the cost, saying around 64 lives had been lost, and urged Gen Z to keep demanding accountability for those responsible. He also delivered a warning to the political class: if young people are not given a seat at the table, they will turn the table over.
It was an emotional, often passionate conversation about memory, justice and the future Kenya's youngest voters want. Many of them will vote in a general election for the first time in 2027.
Continue with Part 2 on Citizen TV.
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