Radio king Maina Kageni has weighed in on the government’s call for the Kenyan Gen Z movement to elect leaders to engage in dialogue with the government, expressing his opposition to the move.
In a message posted on his X account, the media personality opined that any dialogue touching on the issues raised by Gen Z must be done online where it all started.
He added that this is the only way that young Kenyans who are the owners of the narrative and the country will have their voices heard.
“This entire thing started online…. Any dialogue or conversation or discussion or deliberation or whatever…. MUST be done online, where young Kenyans, the true owners of this narrative, the owners of this country can individually have their opinion heard….. anything else, apana” Maina wrote, leaving no doubt that he is opposed to having a few representatives engage in dialogue.
Calls to gen Zs to remain leaderless or risk politicians hijacking the narrative
A number of social media commentators have also opined that the Gen Z movement that pushed President William Ruto should remain leaderless and united if it hopes to achieve its goals, among them being greater accountability by government officials.
“GEN Zs. You are a specific group, defined by age set and nothing else. You are United by similar interests, desires, challenges, aspirations, motivations etc. Don't allow yourselves to be grouped and asked to appoint leaders into some amorphous committee or commission. Unless you want to be finished or to finish yourselves.” Wahome Thuku cautioned.
A similar stance has been adopted by activist Boniface Mwangi and Miguna Miguna with calls for the Gen Z movement to remain leaderless and have all engaged so as guard against the political class hijacking the cause or compromising leaders.
Githunguri MP Gathoni Wamuchomba also cautioned Kenyan Gen Z against heeding government’s request to appoint leaders to engage in dialogue citing past instances such as the National Dialogue Committee process that has not produced any tangible result more than a year later.
This comes at a time when a number of people who supported the #RejectFinanceBill protests have had to fight claims of receiving money to change their stance.