Is Uhuru Kenyatta Behind the Deadly Gen Z Protests?

Pro-Ruto bloggers and allies claim former President is desirous of regime-change but others believe he’s being used a scapegoat

By THEDISPATCH.DIGITAL REPORTER

The intensity, organization and efficiency of the recent Gen Z-led protests over taxation, poor governance, conspicuous consumption and corruption in the government have led to many people to imagine that there’s a focused, well-funded leadership behind them, although the protestors deny that there’s any leader of their movement.

A lot of theories have been flying and names bandied around, accusations and conjectures made but Kenyans still seem to be as far away from knowing who, if anyone, is behind the protests in the country.

But that has not prevented politicians from attempting to take advantage of the movement and offer it alternative leadership. Knowing fully well that if Ruto capitulates and resigns he would be the beneficiary, Deputy President Rigathi Gacagua has tried to sanitize himself and delink with Ruto, portraying himself as a victim of ethnic power control. As rumours swirled thta the DP and Uhur had reconciled and agreed to work together for the common purpose of removing Ruto from power, Gacagua called a press conference in Mombasa las week to accuse the National Intelligence Service chief Noordin Haji of incompetence and effectively letting President Ruto down. Haji, ill-advisedly perhaps, did not take the accusation lying down and immediately responded with a direct hit on the DP, accusing him of being dirty and was only appearing clan because the NIS had not told on him. That immediately raised the question of NIS’s own competence; if they could hide dirt on the DP, probably not telling the President, what else were they hiding and could they be trusted if they could conceal information about public figures?

Elsewhere, Ruto has attracted some very strange support. Kileleshwa MCA and pro-ODM blogger Robert Alai has been running episodes on his social media accounts accusing Gacagua of plotting against the President in cahoots with former President Uhuru Kenyatta.

He wrote on Tuesday: “Ruto made lots of mistakes (sabotaging Kenya’s middle class, dalliance with US and attacking Russia over Ukraine etc) and now powerful interests within his government and also linked to former President have seen an opportunity to overthrow him.”

Alai went on to add that innocent protestors were playing into the hands of the people pulling the strings behind the protests and that the would not solve their problems. While urging his Luo people to stay away from the protests, Alai, who often reflects the opinions of others and not his own, claimed that Uhuru wanted his brother Muhoho to become President after Ruto is overthrown.

Some of the discussions and conspiracy theories around the protests appear amusing and unrealistic. While many Gen Z youth agitate for Ruto’s resignation or removal, they do not fully understand the Constitutional implications of his resignation. First, a Ruto resignation would result in Rigathi Gacagua immediately taking over as President under the Constitution of Kenya 2010. Compared to Gacagua, Ruto is a saint as Gacaga is a dyed-in-the-wool authoritarian dictator with absolutely no feelings and would not hesitate to clamp on on the same freedoms that would have resulted in him becoming President. Gacagua has in the past been linked to the state-instigated violence of 1992, during which ethnic Kikuyus were profiled and targeted by the regime of President Daniel Moi, for which Gacagua worked as a District Officer in Molo.

It is obvious that the Ruto Presidency has failed. It has been rejected in several parts of the county. It was a Presidency built on ravaging the State and not service. Most of Ruto’s appointees were selected from among the most corrupt individuals in the political space. Some of his CSs were suspects in corruption cases while he also did not have a clean reputation when coming into office, something that many of his supporters overlooked in the belief that he was one of them and lived in the hope that, like him, they too could rise to the top.

But it is the side that he defeated that appears to be coming together in a complex conspiracy fueled by economic hardships, partly caused by IMF demands that is bringing Ruto down.

“For all intents and purposes,” say Dr. Richard Onyango, a social researcher in Nairobi,, “the Ruto Government has failed and fallen. It is being propped by the military and the police. The fact that discontent is so widespread means that even if he were to survive this and go to an election, it would b a near impossibility for Ruto to win a fair election.”
That seems to be the reality that Ruto’s deputy, Rigathi Gacagua, has observed and is seeking not to be wept away but also to make capital out of it. Gacagua has put in a lot of effort to distance himself from Ruto and his ruling clique, calling himself “Truthful Man”. But insiders say that Gacagia’s fallout with Ruto and his men was over tender kickbacks started much earlier than the youth revolt and he’s only trying to capitalize on it. In fact, sources say that the Gen Z demonstrations have given Gacagua a lifeline as he was due to be impeached when they started.

“Gacagua was going to be impeached after the Budget,” a source disclosed. “Gen Z saved him and now he can even hope to replace Ruto.

While speculation flows, the reality is that there is no organised group behind the Gen Z protests, which are the culmination of decades of theft, deceit and corruption by the successive rregimes that have ruled Kenya. Although there has bene some effort to paint Uhurus as better than Ruto, the truth is that some of the mess Ruto finds himself in was created in the Uhuru years.

But Ruto cannot escape responsibility- he has become the face of political dishonesty as while he campaigned on a platform of no borrowing, he has browed more than Uhuru in the same period and has nothing to show for the borrowed money. He has also allowed a class of conspicuous consumers to sprout around him, splashing cash at harambees and living large. He has also not prosecuted any corruption cases, even though corruption is more brazen both bat national and county government levels.

Ruto’s own style of governance has also been his undoing. Sources close to him say that he does not want any intelligent or educated person around him. “He wants those who will sing his praises, not people who will tell him the truth. That’s why he hires people who cannot question him and his word is law.”

Ruto’s political sense and acumen also appear overrated and submerged in his ego. While the public protested through so many fora that the impeached Finance Bill 2024 would cause pain, he appeared to value the opinion of the IMF and World Bank more, ignoring local protests and spending millions of shillings to bribe MPs to vote for it. These MPs are now the subject of public scrutiny and it’s doubtful if any of them will make it back to Parliament again after what the public sees as betrayal.