Moi era minister asks Gen Z to stop protests and embrace dialogue

Veteran politician Hussein Mohamed has appealed to the youth and other Kenyans to end protests and accept dialogue with the government.

Mohamed, who was MP for  Dujis (now Garissa Township) for 30 years, called on President William Ruto to listen to the young people as he would loose nothing by doing so.

Mohamed served as a minister in President Daniel arap Moi’s regime and in Kibaki’s administration as an assistant minister.

He said the demonstrations started peacefully but have since been infiltrated by thugs out to loot and destroy property.

“I want to tell them that as our children and grandchildren we love you. You are the future leaders of this country. You are the owners of this great country. And we are happy for you because you started a good cause to tell our government that what they are doing is not right and it has yielded fruit to a big extent,” Mohamed said.

Speaking at his Garissa residence, the retired politician said even though the Constitution is clear on the right to demonstrate and picket, having peaceful protests is not possible since goons always take advantage of the situation to start looting and destroying people’s property.

The youthful demonstrators, popularly referred to as Gen Zs - in reference to the term generally used to describe those born between 1997 and 2010 –have been demonstrating for a month across the country.

The demos started over the proposed Finance Bill, 2024, now withdrawn. The demonstrators raided Parliament in anger over passage of the bill. Days later, President William Ruto said that he had heard Kenyans and that he would not sign the bill into law.

“I think the government has heard you loud and clear. They back-tracked from the Finance Bill. In the first place, they were adamant and were not listening but later they gave in and the President himself promised that he is going to withdraw that bill, which he later did,” Mohamed said.

“So, I want to appeal to our young generation, who are like my grandchildren, to kindly stop these demonstrations and accept dialogue, which to me is the best thing. It is through talking that solutions to problems are always found.”

He lauded the President’s recent dismissal of his Cabinet.

Mohamed challenged the youth to get IDs and voting cards as those are the best weapons to remove a government they deem unfit to lead the country.

“My free advice is please start preparing for 2027, which is not far. Get the important documents like ID cards and the voter's card and on voting day wake up very early in the morning and vote for the leaders of your choice and send home those you don’t want. That is the best way to punish governments,” he said.