The televised revolt of the youth echoes a recent event, ‘Passing the Baton’ when a 54-year-old chief executive of a robust not-for-profit organisation handed over leadership to a 32-year-old woman. Women of all shades and ages cheered the planned corporate transition.
Young Kenyans won’t wait anymore to be asked to defend their right to participate in public governance. They will no longer wait for elders to tell them that they are leaders of tomorrow. The wait-for-tomorrow lullaby is stale.
It’s time for the youth to speak out — boldly, loudly and clearly. Their reasoning is sound; their cause is noble: to influence their destiny as citizens of a stalling polity courtesy of political power dinosaurs.
Imbued with excessive hubris, and deceptive sense of entitlement, the power-wielders did not see this coming, even with clear signals of massive disenchantment.
The youth, colloquially dubbed ‘Gen Z’, have seized the baton. Their voices have been heard on the controversial 2024 Finance Bill. From now on, they will apply for identification cards, register to vote and be voted for in elective leadership positions. They know their voices matter.
Wielders of conventional political power now know this critical mass has acquired an invigorated civil consciousness. They are challenging the status quo. They want public governance reconfigured. They want justice, accountability and integrity in public office.
Activist Anita Baraza, 17, had a message of gratitude and declaration of transition to the people’s baba, Raila Odinga, a career champion of the common good. “Agwambo, this is our message to you. Usitoke, don’t come out. Agwambo, please, stay at home. We saw your efforts. We saw everything you did for Kenya. We miss you, but we are getting out on your behalf.”
Displaying youthful exuberance, Gen Z are saying, 'punda amechoka!’ The country and the leadership should listen to this massive constituency of energised youth. They have the present and the future to claim.
Politicians, especially, must listen or drown when these advocates of change take full charge of their destiny. But the overdue wave of transition needs order whose echoes were heard recently from Polycom Girls, a not-for-profit organisation. At Polycom Girls, 80 per cent of staff and mentors are Gen Z.
I witnessed it, as an observer, courtesy of the invitation of an alumni of the Technical University of Kenya, Faith Mutegi. Women — elderly and young — assembled to witness the ‘Passing the Baton’ event.
It was exciting to be a curious minority among a happy majority. This was the way it was during ‘Passing the Baton’ at a Nairobi hotel. The audience appreciated the sense of occasion.
Here was a lesson for Kenya — a male-dominated polity, where succession comes with conspiracies, suspicions, fraud and intrigues. Polycom Development Project became Polycom Girls — an organisation that advances respect for the rights of girls and women.
The organisation works to foster a society where all, including girls and women, have the power to make meaningful contributions on matters germane to their dignity.
Through Polycom Girls’ corporate mentorship, girls connect with successful women. These are their role models, mentors and supporters in their pursuit of excellence.
‘Passing the Baton’ attracted diverse speakers, among them Jael Mbogo, a pioneer woman politician, long-term leader of Maendeleo ya Wanawake and former Nominated MP Zipporah Kittony, and former MP and anti-female genital mutilation champion Linah Jebii Kilimo, among other prominent women.
Mbogo, 90, is remembered as the firebrand who drove Mwai Kibaki (Kenya's third president) out of Makadara, a city constituency, back to Othaya in the 1960s.
Mbogo mentored Kittony, who gave Jebii a shoulder to lean on. Jebii, a former Cabinet minister in the Kibaki government, was the first woman to be elected MP from a pastoral community. She was Marakwet East MP between 2002 and 2012.
Mbogo, Kittony, Jebii and others witnessed the transition at Polycom Girls. The founder and chief executive officer, Jane Anyango, handed over to a beneficiary of the programme, Anne Agar. Anyango early this month received Vital Voices Global Leadership Award at the Kennedy Centre in Washington DC.
Anyango nurtured the vision, mission and ideology of Polycom Development Project for two decades. Agar grew up under Anyango’s leadership. One generation handed over corporate leadership to a younger generation, as women aged between 90 and 18 cheered.