Kenya: A Battle for Gen Z

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1:07Welcome to the Crossing Continents podcast from BBC Radio 4.

1:16Personally, I didn't feel like I was at risk. I was just feeling like I'm doing the right thing, fighting for every Kenyan. Bailey Mwangi is a slim, young-looking, 25-year-old former accountancy student. On Sunday, 21st December 2024, he was sitting on a bench outside a barber shop on a busy street in the heart of the town of Embu, a few hours north of Kenya's capital, Nairobi. That's when they took him. I saw a pickup white in color with very big wheels. It came straight to where I was and three men alighted from it. So those three men were armed and muscular and they came for me, all of them.

2:01So they lifted me up and bundled me in the back of the car where I was sandwiched between two heavy bodybuilders. men. So from there I was immediately handcuffed and they torn my t-shirt blindfolded me and commanded me to bend so that I cannot be able to track which way we are actually going or heading to. But this was no arrest. It was something different. I remember asking them why am I being taken? Who are you guys? But they just told me to shut up and cooperate with whatever they say. No one identified himself. They drove for hours. Billy, blindfolded in the back, didn't know where. It was getting dark because I could hear crickets.

2:52We moved off from Tamak Road. I was worried that maybe they were going to kill me.

3:02Over the past year, at least 80 Kenyans, many of them young, have been abducted. some have been freed but few will talk publicly about what happened the abduction started in the aftermath of massive youth-led protests which challenged the government no one has admitted responsibility for the disappearances human rights groups believe elements of kenya's security services are responsible but the authorities deny any involvement for the past two decades in east africa kenya has been seen as a beacon of hope of freedom in a region of repression So what's going on? I'm Michael Kaloki, and this is the story of young Kenyans who find themselves caught in a struggle over the future of Kenya.

3:50At night, hours after Billy was taken, his abductors pulled up to a gated compound and then led him into a building. Looking down through a small gap in his blindfold, Billy could see a little of his surroundings. It looks like somebody's house. because I could see tiles, I could see sofa sets, I could see a TV which was actually switched on on Citizen TV. So I thought I was in a good place then being seated and being asked questions, but that was not the case. They took me inside a dark room with the torches. They removed my blindfold. All of them were all masked. They removed one handcuff on my right side so that I can be able to strip everything naked and they took all my clothes and they told me to sit down and they had to handcuff my right hand to another metal hinge on the wall.

4:51The metal door closed. Billy was left naked on the floor, chained to the wall, in a room without lights, without windows. He didn't know who had taken him nor why. But then his interrogation began. One came, he was masked. He was beating me recklessly on my back, weeping me, asking me, why am I criticizing the government, doing the activism on Twitter because they had known that I was on X. Why are you doing this? You should respect the president. Now it became clear. Billy had 80 ,000 followers on X and amid the protests a few months earlier, like many young Kenyans of Gen Z, he too had called for change.

5:38I was being told, who are you? Why are you correcting the government? Why are you posting these things? Why are you disrespecting this regime? I was receiving beatings every day. I was just saying, I'm sorry then. We have the freedom of speech. We are tired of what's actually happening in this country. We need a new change. and I was left in the dark, in a dark room, waiting for the next action and fearing for my life because every time I could think that these are the last moments of me being in this earth.

6:17To understand what's been happening, we have to look at the protests which have gripped Kenya over the past year as a new generation of Kenyan youth really started flexing its political muscle. I'm here at the Madhari Social Justice Centre, located on the edge of Madhari Slum, here in the city of Nairobi. And I'm hoping to meet one of the prominent activists who've been taking part in the protests. And as I look around me here, I see a number of children outside here playing what looks like dodgeball, with an improvised ball made out of a carrier bag stuffed with clothing. And there are murals of prominent African activists painted on the walls, as well as inscriptions here on the door.

7:01We don't fight for ideas in our heads. We fight to attain social justice. My name is Wanjira Wanjiru. I am a social justice activist from the social justice movement in Kenna. Also a very vibrant and active genze who was participating in the protests. Wanjira is petite with braided hair. She's wearing a pink outfit and very practical boots. She's a veteran protester, but she says what started last year was different. I felt like we birthed a new country when the protests began, and I strongly believe that Kenya will never be the same again. The trigger was a new finance bill which proposed big tax increases across the board, including on many everyday items, all while millions of Kenyans were already struggling.

7:47I was part of the committee that was organizing the protests to reject the finance bill because it was going to make our lives even more difficult. On top of this, the cost of living is very high and we were already having a high-taxation kind of situation with no services because corruption is part of the system. So young people are coming to say, no, no, no. In many ways, people were primed to protest. Popular anger over poverty, youth unemployment and corruption had been simmering for a long time. And crucially, the vast majority of Kenyans are young. They've grown up in a Kenya which has a progressive constitution, freedom of expression, and the internet.

8:28Young Kenyans took to social media to denounce the bill, spread the word, and mobilize across the country. That was new. It almost became like you are a sellout of the people if you do not reject finance bills. So also celebrities were, hey, I'm one of the people who's rallying my followers to come and reject the bill. So it became a very community-oriented, patriotic-centered activity of rejecting the finance bill. And because we know what they do to protest leaders, they are often compromised or eliminated. So we said we are not going to have a figurehead. Many responded to the call on social media.

9:07Mwende Kingori was one. I knew that if a drastic positive change would happen even in the next five years, even in the next election, I would probably say I took part in those protests that made this change. Mwende is a student and an actress, a rising star on TV. I meet her for coffee in a leafy restaurant in an upmarket neighbourhood of Nairobi. One of the big things about these protests is that they drew in a cross-section of young people, cutting across class and ethnicity. I'm a Gen Z. We are the future. so we want a new set of leaders that are ready to listen and are ready to change how things are being run in this country.

9:50Two, we want to fight corruption. We want a balanced country where all of us get to live life equally. We want jobs. We don't want to live in a country where people are just really struggling to make it in life.

10:08in june 2024 as mps were set to pass the bill a peaceful protest started downtown near parliament over the days the numbers of protesters swelled tens of thousands took to the streets in towns and cities across the country mwende went to the protests in nairobi with her sister we all left the house knowing we're going to a peaceful protest and it was really encouraging seeing that we were a lot in the streets. And we're not just a lot. We were a lot and we're young. It was so encouraging that young people have actually woken up and they have taken up charge and they've decided we are the future.

10:45We need to fight for our future. But as the numbers on the streets grew, there were clashes as police started to push back using whips, baton charges, tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets. There were casualties, even fatalities. Sometimes you'd find someone would fall and just run because we're running and we don't want to get hurt. We don't want the canisters to bust maybe near us. It was traumatic. But still, Parliament voted the legislation through. And that's when things really kicked off. Huge demonstrations took place across the country. In Nairobi, protesters even managed to briefly storm the Parliament complex and politicians fled.

11:26Kenyans were reminding politicians you are elected to be our representatives and not lord over us in asserting that all sovereign power belongs to the people of Kenyans as stated in Article 1 of the Kenyan constitution. So it became a fight for the sovereignty of Kenyans. Who owned Kenyans?

11:48Now the stakes for both sides escalated. At Parliament, security forces opened fire. Several protesters were killed. Especially when they started shooting at us, we lie down as bullets fly over our heads. You know, they da-da-da-da-da and then stop. When they stop, we stand up and run. When they shoot again, we lie down. I feel like I was in a movie. And I feel like I was trying to get out of the danger zone and I did not stop running. Even after I was out of the bullets, I just kept running and running and running. There was a message that went out on social media that said, if you're in town, you need to leave.

12:27There have been orders to shoot to kill. Dr. Darlene Ikerima is a humanitarian health worker who volunteered at first aid stations set up during the protests. So I came to the camp and there was so much going on. At that time, the amount of victims had doubled in number. We had more victims, worse injuries that included GSWs, gunshot wounds. We had extreme cuts. We had traumas. We had people who had even like, even had a dead body that was brought to us. And I could say he was around 19, 20. He had no identification. When he was brought in, they said he fell from a building. But when we turned him around to assess the body, we found gunshot wounds at the back, two of them.

13:10We treated almost over 400 victims. A lot of lives have been lost, a lot. Across the country, in the first wave of protests, human rights groups say at least 63 people were killed, hundreds injured. Kenyans were horrified. I got home that night. I remember my dad was very scared for me. I remember I cried, actually, because I've never seen so much happen, so much intentional harm happen to, you know, innocent people. They were out to kill. They were not out to discipline. They were out to kill. For the protesters now, it wasn't just about a finance bill. It became about how Kenya was being governed by President William Ruto.

13:55But the storming of parliament also shocked those in authority, who saw it as an attack on democracy, an attack on the country's legitimate elected representatives. The president said the protests had been hijacked. He talked of treasonous events and threats to national security. Still, in the aftermath, the president did abandon the finance bill and then fired much of his cabinet, a victory of sorts for the protesters. On the streets, things appeared to calm down, but it was in this quieter period that the abduction started. This is summer at its peak. Whole Foods Market Summer Fruit Fest is your invitation to eat the season.

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15:00When you first heard of the abductions, were you worried, Wanjira? I was. I was worried. I was worried, and then I told myself, I am a tiny girl from Mathare. I don't think I'm much of a troublemaker. So I was trying to comfort myself that they would definitely look at me, but then I'm also very vocal and vibrant and visible. So that also made me feel like I have some sort of protection because there would be a lot of noise if I was abducted.

15:36but billy mwangi was one of dozens who were taken after four days of being beaten languishing in his dark cell billy was blindfolded and put in the back of an suv with five other detainees billy was told he would be going home instead he says they were driven to what appeared to be another informal prison. After we alighted from the vehicle, they started beating us again. And I was slapped on my right side of the cheek and I become unconscious. I don't know for how long, maybe several hours or I don't know. I found myself inside a room with a mattress inside another cell and with a bucket there and my hair was already shaved.

16:22Another abductor came, opened my door, He gave me some whips. I asked him why we were told that we are leaving the other place to go home. But he told me this is actually home and he was still beating me up. And I felt like indeed these were the last days. I'm here to stay. They continued to interrogate him and forced him to hand over the passwords to his social media accounts. He was kept alone but could hear there were other prisoners there. I could hear from afar, there was another set of abductees who were also held in there. From the environs, you can hear like you're in a forest, because the breeze, the trees, and there's, I don't know if it's a monkey.

17:11Every night that I was sleeping there, you could hear, every night. But by then, the abductions had become headline news. Kenya has a vibrant independent press. Families made public appeals. Human rights groups and lawyers started petitioning the courts, demanding action from the police. Billy's father attended one court hearing, weeping, begging for answers. The government denied it was responsible and promised to investigate. But pressure on the authorities was mounting. After almost two weeks at the new facility, Billy was brought before what appeared to be a special panel of interrogators.

17:49They handcuffed me and I was taken inside another room. Now they told me, Billy, who funds you? Why are you in activism? Who gives you money for mobilization? I told them I don't have anybody. I was just myself. They told me then not to pose bad things, not to correct the government because I don't have any right. I'm not a member of parliament. I'm not a senator. I'm not an MNCA, I'm not the president. I was just agreeing to everything they were saying. I told them that I will stop being an activist. After a 30-minute interview, they told me then don't tell anybody what happened, don't tell anybody what transpired, and I should prepare.

18:37I'm going home. And so Billy was put in a car and driven for hours. He was dumped by the side of the road, but they gave him a little cash, and eventually, using public transport, Billy made his way to his family home in Embo. I tried to say to Dad, Mom, nobody was hearing my voice. And that's the moment where Mom opened this door. And I said, Mom, Mom, he said, Dad, it's Billy. And they came, rushing and hugging me and crying, being emotional, asked me if I'm okay, came outside the gate, told people to come here, Billy's back. Yes, it might be a happy feeling that you're back home, but it's a very sad feeling because I've never seen my mom cry.

19:27So it was the first time seeing her cry, and not crying because of something good, but crying because of the worries and the sadness that she had during that time that I was missing. He went to the hospital to be checked out, have his injuries treated. Billy didn't talk about what he'd been through, but his re-emergence and that of other detainees gave the families of the missing some hope. My brother was a very humble young man. We loved him very much. He was the youngest, he was a good boy, very friendly. In Kibera, a poor neighborhood of shacks and narrow alleys in the capital Nairobi, Monica sits in a neat, tidy beauty salon with red and purple hair extensions hanging from the wall.

20:18Shortly before Christmas, her brother Kalani was abducted from his shop in Mlolongo, a small town on the outskirts of the city. It was the 16th of December last year. We heard that there were some cars that came while my brother was working. Two white cars. Three or four men got out. They had masks on and they were armed. They came into his shop and took him in broad daylight and they put him in a vehicle and drove off. Three of Kalani's friends were also abducted in Mlolongo around the same time. Steve Mbisi, Martin Mwau and Justice Musimi. Locals believed that they must have been arrested by security agents.

21:02Who else, they assumed, would be armed, knocking on doors and detaining people in broad daylight. But Monica couldn't believe that Kalani would be in trouble with anyone, let alone the authorities. He was hardworking, took pride in himself and his work. He didn't have any issues. He was never in trouble. He's never been arrested. He wasn't into politics or protests, though perhaps his friends were. but he's very innocent. Monica filed a police report and went round the police stations but was told there was no record of them in custody. We gave up on them, the police. We got together with other families and searched areas where they used to hang out.

21:49We checked hospitals and morgues. Monica and the families of the other missing boys from Mlolongo went to court. The judge ordered the chief of police to appear to give evidence on the disappearances. It was a day Monica can't forget. We went to court and Kanja, the police chief, came and said our boys are not in custody. Then, all of a sudden, we got a call that the bodies of some boys had just been delivered to the city mortuary and we should go and see them. When they got there, they found the bodies of Kalani's friends, Martin Mwao and Justice Musimi. There were other unidentified bodies there too.

22:29Monica and her mom were asked to check if Kalani was among them. The door was opened. My mother just stood there, frozen. I told her, Mom, wait here. I'll just go. And she said, No, I want to see my baby. So, you know, I held her hand and we entered. Two bodies had been placed on a table. A policeman told us, these are the unidentified bodies. Have a look. I didn't know where the strength came from, but I approached one of the bodies. They pulled the cover from the face. I saw it wasn't my brother. His hair was shaved and my brother has dreadlocks. The policeman told me, come to the next body.

23:12He was only wearing a jacket and his arm was stuck in a strange way. I had a look and I told the policeman, this is not my brother. But then Monica asked to see the bodies of her brother's friends. She wanted to know how they died.

23:32So, like, Martin, the thing is, they look like they were beaten. They were beaten because if you look at them, there was blood. And for the other man, I saw what looked like a wound on his neck. It was weird. A government pathologist said Martin and Justice had died from multiple abdominal and chest injuries caused by a blunt object and strangulation. No one has been prosecuted for their deaths. Kalani and his friend Steve remain missing. Monica refuses to believe that her brother shared their fate.

24:08We believe that he is alive because even when I ask my mom, do you sense anything? She said no. and as a mum, if your child dies, you will sense it. My thinking is they are locked up somewhere. We have faith in God and that one day he will re-emerge.

24:30The killings, the violence and the abductions reinvigorated the protest movement. After the death in custody of a teacher and blogger, a new wave of demonstrations took place across the country in June and July this year. The violence seemed to have escalated In some towns, police stations and government buildings were attacked Human rights groups say more than 60 people were killed in the demonstrations Many more injured Wanjira was there It was extremely violent There was more tear gas There was more people were being beaten by police when they would find you That evening when I got home, I got to see reports of women who had been raped That was very new, which was the first time we were hearing.

25:13So that day, there was palpable anger and a little bit of fear.