From Online and the Streets to the Corridors of Power: Gen Z Protests and the Promotion of Social Justice in Kenya.

This paper examines the impacts of Gen Z protests on the social justice movement in Kenya. The paper set out to: i) historicize the youth activism in Kenya; ii) examine the tactics and strategies used by the Gen Z to advocate for policy change in Kenya; iii) discuss the impacts of Gen Z protests on accountability, policy formulation, transparency and political change in Kenya iv) and finally to discuss the role of the Constitution of Kenya, 2010 in emboldening Gen Z’s advocacy for social justice in Kenya. The paper is anchored on deprivation theory. The paper utilizes qualitative tools to obtain data. These tools include newspapers, television and radio interviews, X-space recordings and personal observations. The secondary sources of information were obtained from journals, books and blogs of civil societies. The paper adopted a historical research design to collect data and the data was analyzed in a thematic manner and the study findings were written in a continuous narrative. The paper argues that the youth-led advocacy in post-independent Kenya can be traced to 1966 following the purge of Oginga Odinga from the independence government. However, the real impacts of youth activism started to be felt in Kenya during the pro-democracy protests in the 1990s. Since then, the youth have been pivotal in causing change in both the Kenyan socio-economic and political spheres. The paper further argues that the Gen Z protests of 25th June, 2024 forced President William Ruto to withdraw the finance bill of 2024/2025. The paper also acknowledges the critical role played by the Constitution of Kenya, 2010 in thwarting the efforts aimed at circumventing the Constitution of Kenya by the political class. The paper postulates that these youth-led advocacies will strengthen constitutionalism and creation of a just, responsive and democratic Kenyan society.