Youthful protesters along Kenyatta Avenue, during the first anniversary of Gen Z deaths on June 25, 2025. [Benard Orwongo, Standard] If you ask a random youth in Mathare how the government treats us, they’ll tell you we feel, at best, paternalised and condescended, and at worst, patronised and disregarded. Senior government officials have branded us disrespectful. Our peers advocating good governance have faced abduction and trumped-up charges of terrorism. Last week, addressing youth discontent in Machakos, the President blamed parents of poor parenting. The government’s mindset seems to demand unquestioning blind respect from the youth without reciprocity. This mirrors a parent-child relationship with a power imbalance,…
Author: By Wanja Maina
Dr Erastus Edung Ethekon takes oath of office as the Chairperson of IEBC on July 11, 2025. [Kanyiri Wahito, Standard] Greetings, EBC chairman and commissioners. Congratulations on your appointment and being entrusted with the enormous responsibility of midwifing Kenya’s 15th democratic elections in 2027, which, by all indications, will be highly competitive. As your team undergoes induction in Mombasa, the humid climate mirrors Kenya’s political environment: hot with high levels of polarisation, ethnic balkanisation, youth protests, and their unfortunate hijacking by goons. These are strong indicators of potential challenges the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission will face during and after…
Protesters during Saba Saba protest in Kitengela on July 7th 2025. (Collins Oduor, Standard) On July 7th, 2025, active citizens celebrated Saba Saba’s 35th birthday. In 1990, we crossed the Rubicon in our history by pushing back against authoritarianism that had repressed Kenyans’ political rights, especially their right to exercise multipartyism and political pluralism. Back then, things were so bad that even if you exercised your freedom of speech, you weren’t assured of freedom after speech. Forced disappearances, torture chambers, and spying were the order of the day. We remember this horror movie of repression, which is part of our…
It will take me a while to get over the scenes I saw on television of goons holding big jembe sticks threatening the protestors who were demanding justice for Ojwang. The goons, who were charged, showing their faces seemingly well-coordinated, were telling all who cared to listen that “hatutakubali maandamano kwa hii town”. They made good of their threats by beating people, looting, and what is worse, so far, none have been arrested. Some of the goons are now whistle-blowing, but not because they feel bad about their looting, but because they were not paid “na tulimaliza mboka” (and…