In June, Kenya witnessed historic protests as young people took to the streets to oppose legislation that, if passed, would raise $2.7 billion through higher taxes on essential goods. This would significantly increase the cost of living for many Kenyans.
The initial backlash against the Finance Bill 2024 ignited across social media. The digital uproar swiftly transformed into mass demonstrations in mid-June 2024. Thousands of young people joined human rights advocates in protests.
The scale of unrest caught Kenya off guard, as what was meant to be a peaceful demonstration escalated into violence. This upheaval left Kenya’s parliament vulnerable to break-ins, leading to the deployment of heavy security forces and resulting in numerous deaths, disappearances and extensive property damage.
“We call that collateral damage,” said Edward Francis Babu, a former Ugandan minister and prominent member of the ruling party. Uganda was quietly watching the events happening across its western border.
I interviewed Babu during the peak of Kenya’s riots. At the time, he praised Kenya’s President William Ruto for permitting the youth to exercise their right to peacefully protest. But he noted that Kenya has tended to look down on Uganda for being less civilized. Now both nations are dealing with the same unrest.
“The Kenyan government has a belief that Uganda is a matooke [banana] republic,” Babu said. “Now they are also ugali [a corn meal dish] republic because they let people break into parliament.”
The passion of protesters spreads across borders.
Babu expressed surprise that the Kenyan government was not more prepared. “How could they not foresee that such unrest might lead to damage at the parliament?” he said. “Kenyans are not ‘high and mighty.’ When it comes to demonstrations, you must have control. If you can’t control it, you stop it.”
A month later, Babu’s words appeared prophetic as the protests spread to his country. Ugandan observers, stirred by newspaper reports and a cartoonist’s portrayal of Ugandan youths as inactive while Kenya’s issues unfolded, reacted strongly.
First, Ugandan youths took to the social media network X to launch an “Anita Must Resign” campaign, demanding the resignation of Anita Among, Uganda’s Speaker of Parliament.
Ugandan youths accused the parliament of corruption and incompetence, with the Daily Monitor, one of Uganda’s leading newspapers even dubbing it “The House of Deals.”
The media and social media campaigns led to a “March2Parliament” demonstration on 23 July. Number one on the list of demands? The speaker’s resignation. However, just days into the march, Uganda President Museveni cautioned: “You are playing with fire!”
Echoing Babu’s warning, the night before the march to parliament in Uganda, the government deployed security forces with strict orders to prevent any demonstrations.
Youth bear the costs of corruption.
Shamim Nambassa, a pharmacist, youth activist and former guild president of Makerere University in Uganda, said that young people make up about 70% of the Uganda population.
“And in a situation like this, where young people are facing a lot of challenges ranging from unemployment, high taxation and then misuse of public funds by the people that we entrusted to lead us, it leaves us no option but to rise up and fight,” she said. “Else it’s our future they are robbing, we won’t have anything to hold on.”
Perhaps Uganda’s intelligence was as sharp as Babu suggested, as the march ultimately failed. Hundreds of youths were arrested, despite parliament being in session that day, and business continued as usual. However, a few MPs raised concerns, questioning how the government could remain indifferent while youths were being arrested over financial mismanagement issues that directly implicated them.
“I believe that the youth need to be represented in bigger platforms,” Nambassa said. “Not just having a seat at the table, but also being proactively involved in these policies that are brought forward, in seeing that we actually have policies that work for us, as the youth, and better our lives but then also in defending what we have and fighting against corruption.”
According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, just 2.6% of parliamentarians worldwide are under 30 years old. Despite this, research indicates that a majority of young people, particularly ages 15-17, are hopeful about the future.
How to measure the success of protests?
On 24 July, the Daily Monitor ran the headline: “Corruption Shield” accompanied by an image of policemen forming a blockade with riot shields to prevent access to parliament, while the pro-government New Vision ran with: “Ministry to recruit 6,000 more teachers” alongside a smaller heading of “Demo youth charged.” A couple of days later, President Museveni used his X account to congratulate the militants for foiling “the bad demonstrations.”
Nambassa sees the protest as the first time in Uganda that youths came together against corruption and, in that way, was neither bad nor foiled.
“I consider 23rd July as a success,” she said. “Because 23rd was party-less, it was leaderless. The fact that we saw the government trying to threaten us, make all sorts of public statements, the deployment that was made around the country. It did expose the systems, the judiciary, the police, executive and parliament.”
In a written statement, the president blamed the demonstrations on foreign influence. “Funding from foreign sources that are always meddling in the internal affairs of Africa for the last 600 years ─ slave trade, colonialism, neo-colonialism, genocide, economic exploitation etc,” he wrote. “All those involved, should know that Uganda is not a neo-colony where those shallow schemes can be deployed.”
Jonathan Clayton, who has covered East Africa for the Reuters global newswire and The Times of London noted that Museveni tends to blame unspecified foreigners or outsiders. “Does he mean Russians, colonialists, imperialists — one of his favourite scapegoats — or fellow African youths?” Clayton said. “If it’s the latter, why shouldn’t Kenyans care about what happens in Uganda or Nigeria, and vice versa? After all, there is still some support for pan-Africanism, isn’t there?”
Clayton said that the leaders seem to be focused on retaining power at all costs. “They are terrified of being vulnerable and grew up in a winner-takes-all world,” he said. “Museveni chose to amend the constitution repeatedly.”
Now, he said, those in the government fear being swept away by a new movement.
“Is it meddling if a young Kenyan exchanges information with a young Uganda on how to fight against corrupt governments, swaps ideas on social media and so on?” Clayton said. “I don’t think so.”
The power of social media
But while the government can manage to clear the streets of protests, the exchanges continue on social media.
On X, for example, Brian Osoro advised Ugandans, “To effectively manage demonstrations, identify a clear enemy; for us, it was the political class. Find something that unites you — for us, it was Gen Z. Use simple sentences and graphics for mass mobilisation, as long sentences can be a barrier. Also, decentralise demonstration leaders to prevent the government from targeting a single point of control.”
On July 28, Robert Kyagulanyi, a musician turned politician who is a leader in the opposition and has significant support from young people, and who goes by the name Bobi Wine, expressed on X his regret for not physically joining the riots. “We want this to be an organic, people-led movement — what you might call people power,” he said. Bobi Wine’s political slogan is “People Power, Our Power.”
Bobi Wine and his supporters have faced accusations of foreign influence and connections to the LGBTQI community. His direct involvement in the riots could have led to the government targeting the opposition more aggressively.
Despite this, the opposition leader continued to encourage protesters, with a message of perseverance: “Keep going, believe me, it works and it will work. Keep going — when they tear gas you, keep going; when they imprison you and you get out, keep going. Most importantly, don’t stop. Either corruption wins or morality wins. Corruption has guns and control over the courts, but when people are determined to win, they will. Let’s unite and save our country.”
The government pushes back.
On 3 September Bobi Wine sustained a leg injury in a scuffle that saw a policeman firing at him. But the initial statement from Ugandan police was that he sustained the injury while climbing into his car.
Despite the government backlash, Nambassa believes that protests ultimately work. “What I know is that, when I was a student leader at Makerere [University], our demands were not listened to until we said ‘we are going to protest,’” she said. “And it is our right, enshrined within the law.”
For Nambassa, 23 July found her busy finalising her pharmaceutical practicum in the northern region of Uganda, “But I participated online, as a mobiliser and trying to push the message,” she said.
The frustration expressed through the demonstrations has its roots in corruption and the embezzlement of public funds that has drained the government and left it with high debts.
This affects all of East Africa, Babu said, because the governments must now raise taxes to pay back the money they borrowed. “It has to be money you collect from your country,” he said. “And if you have a heavy debt, paying it off means you don’t have enough to run the government!”
Accounting for high debt
Babu’s observations resonate across these situations. In Kenya’s case, one would say the country is on track to become the New York of East Africa — the most advanced country in the region — but this ambition comes with significant costs.
By 2023, Kenya’s debt had reached a staggering $80 billion in domestic and foreign obligations. This debt accounts for nearly 75% of the country’s total economic output, according to reports. Additionally, interest payments on this debt consume 27% of the country’s revenue. That compares to about 15% in the United States.
However, Kenya has an unforgiving investor — China — and there is fear that if the country defaulted on its debt, China would seize assets constructed with its funds. The pressure might have forced Kenya to seek additional loans from the International Monetary Fund, which advised Kenya to improve its budget management and ensure that its spending aligns with its tax revenues, or else raise taxes.
Babu said that government officials who were involved in the corruption that caused the problem won’t likely oppose Finance Bill 2024.
Clayton believes that the young people’s movement is not over. “It is the beginning of Africa’s Arab-spring style moment,” he said. “Kenya supported Ruto ‘the hustler’ thinking he might be different — he is worse.”
The initial backlash against the Finance Bill 2024 ignited across social media. The digital uproar swiftly transformed into mass demonstrations in mid-June 2024. Thousands of young people joined human rights advocates in protests.
The scale of unrest caught Kenya off guard, as what was meant to be a peaceful demonstration escalated into violence. This upheaval left Kenya’s parliament vulnerable to break-ins, leading to the deployment of heavy security forces and resulting in numerous deaths, disappearances and extensive property damage.
“We call that collateral damage,” said Edward Francis Babu, a former Ugandan minister and prominent member of the ruling party. Uganda was quietly watching the events happening across its western border.
I interviewed Babu during the peak of Kenya’s riots. At the time, he praised Kenya’s President William Ruto for permitting the youth to exercise their right to peacefully protest. But he noted that Kenya has tended to look down on Uganda for being less civilized. Now both nations are dealing with the same unrest.
“The Kenyan government has a belief that Uganda is a matooke [banana] republic,” Babu said. “Now they are also ugali [a corn meal dish] republic because they let people break into parliament.”
The passion of protesters spreads across borders.
Babu expressed surprise that the Kenyan government was not more prepared. “How could they not foresee that such unrest might lead to damage at the parliament?” he said. “Kenyans are not ‘high and mighty.’ When it comes to demonstrations, you must have control. If you can’t control it, you stop it.”
A month later, Babu’s words appeared prophetic as the protests spread to his country. Ugandan observers, stirred by newspaper reports and a cartoonist’s portrayal of Ugandan youths as inactive while Kenya’s issues unfolded, reacted strongly.
First, Ugandan youths took to the social media network X to launch an “Anita Must Resign” campaign, demanding the resignation of Anita Among, Uganda’s Speaker of Parliament.
Ugandan youths accused the parliament of corruption and incompetence, with the Daily Monitor, one of Uganda’s leading newspapers even dubbing it “The House of Deals.”
The media and social media campaigns led to a “March2Parliament” demonstration on 23 July. Number one on the list of demands? The speaker’s resignation. However, just days into the march, Uganda President Museveni cautioned: “You are playing with fire!”
Echoing Babu’s warning, the night before the march to parliament in Uganda, the government deployed security forces with strict orders to prevent any demonstrations.
Youth bear the costs of corruption.
Shamim Nambassa, a pharmacist, youth activist and former guild president of Makerere University in Uganda, said that young people make up about 70% of the Uganda population.
“And in a situation like this, where young people are facing a lot of challenges ranging from unemployment, high taxation and then misuse of public funds by the people that we entrusted to lead us, it leaves us no option but to rise up and fight,” she said. “Else it’s our future they are robbing, we won’t have anything to hold on.”
Perhaps Uganda’s intelligence was as sharp as Babu suggested, as the march ultimately failed. Hundreds of youths were arrested, despite parliament being in session that day, and business continued as usual. However, a few MPs raised concerns, questioning how the government could remain indifferent while youths were being arrested over financial mismanagement issues that directly implicated them.
“I believe that the youth need to be represented in bigger platforms,” Nambassa said. “Not just having a seat at the table, but also being proactively involved in these policies that are brought forward, in seeing that we actually have policies that work for us, as the youth, and better our lives but then also in defending what we have and fighting against corruption.”
According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, just 2.6% of parliamentarians worldwide are under 30 years old. Despite this, research indicates that a majority of young people, particularly ages 15-17, are hopeful about the future.
How to measure the success of protests?
On 24 July, the Daily Monitor ran the headline: “Corruption Shield” accompanied by an image of policemen forming a blockade with riot shields to prevent access to parliament, while the pro-government New Vision ran with: “Ministry to recruit 6,000 more teachers” alongside a smaller heading of “Demo youth charged.” A couple of days later, President Museveni used his X account to congratulate the militants for foiling “the bad demonstrations.”
Nambassa sees the protest as the first time in Uganda that youths came together against corruption and, in that way, was neither bad nor foiled.
“I consider 23rd July as a success,” she said. “Because 23rd was party-less, it was leaderless. The fact that we saw the government trying to threaten us, make all sorts of public statements, the deployment that was made around the country. It did expose the systems, the judiciary, the police, executive and parliament.”
In a written statement, the president blamed the demonstrations on foreign influence. “Funding from foreign sources that are always meddling in the internal affairs of Africa for the last 600 years ─ slave trade, colonialism, neo-colonialism, genocide, economic exploitation etc,” he wrote. “All those involved, should know that Uganda is not a neo-colony where those shallow schemes can be deployed.”
Jonathan Clayton, who has covered East Africa for the Reuters global newswire and The Times of London noted that Museveni tends to blame unspecified foreigners or outsiders. “Does he mean Russians, colonialists, imperialists — one of his favourite scapegoats — or fellow African youths?” Clayton said. “If it’s the latter, why shouldn’t Kenyans care about what happens in Uganda or Nigeria, and vice versa? After all, there is still some support for pan-Africanism, isn’t there?”
Clayton said that the leaders seem to be focused on retaining power at all costs. “They are terrified of being vulnerable and grew up in a winner-takes-all world,” he said. “Museveni chose to amend the constitution repeatedly.”
Now, he said, those in the government fear being swept away by a new movement.
“Is it meddling if a young Kenyan exchanges information with a young Uganda on how to fight against corrupt governments, swaps ideas on social media and so on?” Clayton said. “I don’t think so.”
The power of social media
But while the government can manage to clear the streets of protests, the exchanges continue on social media.
On X, for example, Brian Osoro advised Ugandans, “To effectively manage demonstrations, identify a clear enemy; for us, it was the political class. Find something that unites you — for us, it was Gen Z. Use simple sentences and graphics for mass mobilisation, as long sentences can be a barrier. Also, decentralise demonstration leaders to prevent the government from targeting a single point of control.”
On July 28, Robert Kyagulanyi, a musician turned politician who is a leader in the opposition and has significant support from young people, and who goes by the name Bobi Wine, expressed on X his regret for not physically joining the riots. “We want this to be an organic, people-led movement — what you might call people power,” he said. Bobi Wine’s political slogan is “People Power, Our Power.”
Bobi Wine and his supporters have faced accusations of foreign influence and connections to the LGBTQI community. His direct involvement in the riots could have led to the government targeting the opposition more aggressively.
Despite this, the opposition leader continued to encourage protesters, with a message of perseverance: “Keep going, believe me, it works and it will work. Keep going — when they tear gas you, keep going; when they imprison you and you get out, keep going. Most importantly, don’t stop. Either corruption wins or morality wins. Corruption has guns and control over the courts, but when people are determined to win, they will. Let’s unite and save our country.”
The government pushes back.
On 3 September Bobi Wine sustained a leg injury in a scuffle that saw a policeman firing at him. But the initial statement from Ugandan police was that he sustained the injury while climbing into his car.
Despite the government backlash, Nambassa believes that protests ultimately work. “What I know is that, when I was a student leader at Makerere [University], our demands were not listened to until we said ‘we are going to protest,’” she said. “And it is our right, enshrined within the law.”
For Nambassa, 23 July found her busy finalising her pharmaceutical practicum in the northern region of Uganda, “But I participated online, as a mobiliser and trying to push the message,” she said.
The frustration expressed through the demonstrations has its roots in corruption and the embezzlement of public funds that has drained the government and left it with high debts.
This affects all of East Africa, Babu said, because the governments must now raise taxes to pay back the money they borrowed. “It has to be money you collect from your country,” he said. “And if you have a heavy debt, paying it off means you don’t have enough to run the government!”
Accounting for high debt
Babu’s observations resonate across these situations. In Kenya’s case, one would say the country is on track to become the New York of East Africa — the most advanced country in the region — but this ambition comes with significant costs.
By 2023, Kenya’s debt had reached a staggering $80 billion in domestic and foreign obligations. This debt accounts for nearly 75% of the country’s total economic output, according to reports. Additionally, interest payments on this debt consume 27% of the country’s revenue. That compares to about 15% in the United States.
However, Kenya has an unforgiving investor — China — and there is fear that if the country defaulted on its debt, China would seize assets constructed with its funds. The pressure might have forced Kenya to seek additional loans from the International Monetary Fund, which advised Kenya to improve its budget management and ensure that its spending aligns with its tax revenues, or else raise taxes.
Babu said that government officials who were involved in the corruption that caused the problem won’t likely oppose Finance Bill 2024.
Clayton believes that the young people’s movement is not over. “It is the beginning of Africa’s Arab-spring style moment,” he said. “Kenya supported Ruto ‘the hustler’ thinking he might be different — he is worse.”
In Uganda, the president and his immediate family are widely recognized for their authoritarian governance. Efforts by journalists and critics to highlight corruption and misconduct frequently encounter substantial resistance and are often disregarded.
“The last thing these people want is transparency, a light thrown on their deeds or misdeeds,” Clayton said. “I see Uganda being much more like Zimbabwe.” In Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe’s extended rule, similar issues of authoritarianism and lack of transparency prevailed.
The situation remains tense. On 2 September, at least four half-naked young women were arrested in Kampala while marching to parliament, calling for the resignation of the Speaker. Their chants included: “Save the women, save the future, save the children, stop corruption.”
“The last thing these people want is transparency, a light thrown on their deeds or misdeeds,” Clayton said. “I see Uganda being much more like Zimbabwe.” In Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe’s extended rule, similar issues of authoritarianism and lack of transparency prevailed.
The situation remains tense. On 2 September, at least four half-naked young women were arrested in Kampala while marching to parliament, calling for the resignation of the Speaker. Their chants included: “Save the women, save the future, save the children, stop corruption.”
Source: News Decorder
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