The past two weeks have seen the country plunged into a state of unrest because of protests against the Finance Bill 2024, which President William Ruto has since withdrawn.

But what exactly caused this unrest and what does that mean to the political playground and players in the country?

Nobody knows who started this non-political revolution but it sure made an impact across the continent: leave alone the country.

Leaderless, tribe less, fearless. That’s the slogan of the Gen Z who decided they were old enough and tired enough.

If the grown-ups are not going to do it then they will… and they did. This group of young, determined individuals made use of social media and their smart phones to pour out their hearts and refused to be subjected to high cost of living and taxes upon taxes.

According to them, the Finance Bill 2024 was one of the biggest jokes because even with public participation which saw a majority of the public reject the bill, legislators went ahead to vote in favor of the punitive Bill.

Now during the first leg of the protest, the issue was the Bill, however, when a number of comrades died in the protests, the hashtag was quickly changed: they want the president to resign because apparently all trust is gone.

Some say the president should be given a benefit of doubt, but others remained adamant because what happens when they back down?

Let us take a not-so-deep dive into the leaderless revolution.

The awakening of the youth to self-awareness has been fueled by the digital information age which has seen about half the planet connected to the internet.

In Kenya, as at 2023, the percentage of Kenyans connected to the internet was 32.7 per cent, one that has since increased with the number of digital hubs and internet cables being installed across the country.

One thing that should not be overlooked is the fact that this is a generation that is digitally evolved, which means they use the internet to get more information, they know their rights and they know what to say to defend themselves.

Now let’s see, how many countries have organized leaderless protests across the world?

Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, Haiti, Algeria, Spain, Ecuador… These are some of the countries that have had instances of leaderless revolutions and they were all against the same things.

Most of these revolutions, for example the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia have been successful. When citizens get tired of what they term as oppression, they revolt.

Anyway, Kenyans are still enraged and leaders with their hunger for appearing on screens or addressing the public are not making it any better. It is July 2, 2024 and the protests are continuing.

The police are still blocking people they feel are disrupting day to day activities but that is not stopping Gen Z from hitting the streets for their cause.

And even with the president announcing his readiness to listen to their grievances, the issue at hand is: who will speak for the leaderless group? Why do they still not have a leader?

Abductions, deaths, threats and denial could have created an uncertainty within the groups because to them, once a leader is chosen then the risk of being corrupted and being ‘bought’ may lead to lack of trust and might be the death of their cause.

One thing that is for sure is that they have made their statement and nobody is going anywhere until the elephant in the room is addressed.

Written by Vera Alberta, TV47 Journalist