By Imboko Tall
I listened to the X space a little yesterday, but I sleep early as an old mule. The rage and urgent need for change by Kenyans is palpable. You can cut it with a machete. People are tired and angry. People want change. There is no debate about that.
Having said that and observed things for the last few weeks, the greatest challenge now for Gen Z is leadership. Even movements that start ad hoc manner get to a point where they need someone or a few people to guide and direct them.
The Gen Z movement has already achieved much, and, interestingly, it’s even inspiring other countries. Going forward, there is a need to speak with one voice. There is a need for some organization. It’s easy to collect money via apps, easy for everyone to say we meet at State House, and easy to spend hours on Spaces expressing ourselves and so forth. But it gets to a point when all these things need to be coordinated and harmonized. The coordination is done by some form of leadership within a form of structure.
In most movements that don’t emerge around a particular person but around issues, leaders somehow naturally emerge. For Gen Z and this current dispensation, no one has yet emerged. This has led to a few vocal people in the movement speaking at cross purposes. This is a seed for confusion and a weakening of the people’s resolve. Some leading figures are against the march to State House and are now being branded snitches. Others insist the march must go on. Others say the march must go on but to mourn and honor the fallen comrades, not to invade State House.
Most loyal Gen Z comrades are ready to put their lives on the line to achieve what they want. But they have to be coordinated. Here is the other risk: knowing Kenya and knowing President William Ruto -Zakayo-the PR stunt yesterday in his speech, was just that. After things cool down, people will start disappearing or filling rivers. History has a way of repeating itself. If this Ruto remains in power, he will do everything to ensure no one else ever imagines organizing an uprising. The Gen Z movement’s way of escaping that is by sustaining the revolution until Ruto and the current MPs are out of power. We have no IEBC capable of handling elections if a recall for MPs was to be done. That is how bad the situation in Kenya is.
The Gen Z movement is only armed with its voice and courage. But all these need strategy and coordination. Strategy and coordination are almost impossible without leadership and structure. It was okay and strategic not to have a leader at the start. But going forward, someone selfless has to emerge, or Gen Z has to designate someone to lead so that they can speak with one voice. The biggest worry at first was that a leader would be easily compromised, and this is very understandable. The movement has achieved something. But going forward, it must crystallize its agenda into a structure and some arm of control.
People start businesses accidentally. Relationships are born from serendipitous encounters. Formal groups start from a random party or even a post on social media. But all these, at some point, demand structure and leadership. This is where the Gen Z movement finds itself. The son of Nyando, Miguna Miguna, loves to say the word “organize” amid his VIVA chants. That organization demands leadership. Who will emerge to lead Gen Z? Gen Z doesn’t want anyone from the current politicians. They see them as part of the problem they are fighting.
Will the struggle ebb away and end like the Arab Spring uprising? Will this be another stillbirth revolution like others? I dread it. No matter what happens, a seed has been planted in Kenyans, and it will not be business as usual. The struggle must continue. No one should trust any word from Zakayo and his functionaries. I pray that a leader emerges. So much is at stake.
Gen Z should come up with a council of sorts with a good lawyer, a charismatic person, two very good mobilizers of people and resources, a very good communication and PR person, and one irritant. That council can then have branches in every county in the future. Wrestling power from people who have been in control since before independence and who have the backing of the imperialist West is no walk in the park. Anger, unity, and passion alone are not enough. Even ragtag militias get leaders at some point. What Gen Z is fighting for is power. Power is taken. To do that, they must organize. To organize, they must have a structure and a leader or leaders. The time is now. It should worry us that so far, no leader that can be accepted by Gen Z has emerged yet.
These are just my reflections. Maybe others think leadership is unnecessary at the moment. But I am just a Sergeant at Arms.
