Gen Zs never left, they changed lanes from streets demos to the podcast mic

A protestor demanding better governance and improved tax policies from the government during demonstrations along Moi Avenue on July 16, 2024. [File, Standard]

One year ago, something in Kenya shifted. It was about truth — raw, brave, unflinching truth — spoken in the voice of a generation that had enough. They poured into the streets, placards in hand and courage in heart, not for a political party or tribal bloc, but for the soul of a nation.

The Gen Z uprising wasn’t organised in smoky backrooms, nor powered by billionaires. It was born in tweets and tears, in slogans and songs, in grief and grit. It was Kenya’s most startling civic awakening in a generation.

Yet, even as the streets filled with chants of hope, they were also stained with blood.
The bullets did not ask for age. The tear gas did not pause for peace.

Innocent lives were lost. Truth-tellers were silenced. The price of patriotism became death. Then came the silence. The “high priests” tossed champagne, convinced it was over — thanks to “Judas”!

The movement was eulogised as young people were assumed to have fled and returned to memes and music. But they were wrong.

Gen Z never left. They simply changed lanes from street protests to podcasts. They knew that the State might outrun a march, but it cannot outlive a movement.

This is not a generation with short attention spans. It is a generation with long memories and longer vision. They are studying systems, coding change and rewriting narratives.

In Kenya today, the mention of Gen Z evokes a desirable energy. It speaks of sacrifice. It signals redemption. To say “Gen Z” now is to conjure a spirit of courage, freedom, and responsibility.

In times of national despair one can feel the silent murmur: “Where are our Gen Zs?” It’s no longer a generational label. It’s a national question of hope.

Gen Z are no longer just a demographic, they are the people’s warriors. They stood when the powerful expected silence.

They bled when others brokered deals. They marched when others mumbled. Kenya has, perhaps for the first time in decades, a generation that the poor, the betrayed and the wounded now look to as potential midwives of a new system.

This shift is historic. Older generations grew up hearing phrases like “where are the elders?” Now, with sobering frequency the cry is: “Where are the Gen Zs?” That question carries with it both faith and frustration. Faith that Gen Z can stir the nation again. Frustration that others have long stopped trying.

The young generation’s disruption is good news not because they have all the answers, but because they have dared to ask the hard questions. They march not with titles but with truth. They carry placards, not privileges. They bleed, not for fame, but for a future.

But to those in power, the name Gen Z sends shivers down the spine. At this time last year, they had friends in ODM. But hunger pangs change things! The “friends” joined the government instead of distancing themselves from it. The broad base feigned a great salvation transaction but it was really just a ticket to the feast.

To the corrupt, Gen Z are bad news. They have a way of making the empire feel naked. They bring mirrors to the streets and force the nation to look.

But let no one romanticise the cost. Gen Z is not just carrying hopethey are still carrying the cross. They are still dying. Still being erased. Some are dying by the bullet targeted when they dare to organise or raise their voice in public. Some are dying by being bought—seduced into silence by State favours. Youth are dying by being suffocated by a weight of corruption they didn’t create.

They are dying by being disregarded and ignored, spoken about but not spoken with, reduced to statistics when they are, in fact, the story.

And yet they are still here. Let us not miss this resilience and revival by calling it a rebellion.

There has been calculated attempts to silence Gen Z and dismantle their morale and crush identity. They have been told that they are powerless. That their “noise” achieves nothing. That they are too young to matter — a glitch in the system rather than a generation with purpose.

The goal? To make them believe they owe those in power a continuous bow. When power fails to persuade, it tries to humiliate. When it cannot dominate the mind, it moves to destroy the body. But you can smash the body but the spirit remains intact. And that is the kind of stuff martyrs are made of.

This is the sacred defiance of Gen Z: even when wounded, they refuse to become bitter. When ignored, they refuse to become invisible. When brutalised, they refuse to lose their sensitivity. They weep, but they do not wither. They bleed, but they do not bow. They fall, but they do not fold.

When a State feels more threatened by teenagers holding placards than by billionaires holding stolen contracts, something has gone terribly wrong.

And yet, in the face of that warped power, Gen Z stands not as victims, but as witnesses. Not as crushed clay, but as refined fire. They are not just resisting, they are redefining. Not just protesting, they are prophesying. They are walking in the long line of those who paid the price of conviction. That is why their story is not over but it has joined the company of stories that never die.

To remember the genesis of Kenya’s Gen Z uprising is to refuse the national amnesia that always follows injustice. It is to keep wounds open until healing happens. The names of the slain are not statistics. Each one calls this nation to account.

To mark the Gen Z revolt anniversary is to declare that justice cannot be time-barred. That even if trials are delayed, testimony is alive. That the voices of the fallen live on not as echoes of despair but as rallying cries for reform.

Truth buried rises and the flame still burns. The State may have cracked skulls. But it could not crush hope. And hope is a dangerous thing and it multiplies under pressure.