Violence and democracy

Translated by Irene Cecchi

While the oldest democracy on earth proves not to be bulletproof after the attempted attack against Trump on July 14th, also another country is pondering the link between violence and “people’s governance”.

On June 25th, a demonstrating crowd stormed at the Nairobi Parliament. While a wing of the building was on fire, some demonstrants broke into the House of the National Assembly, an action that alarmingly reminds us of the Trump supporters’ Capitol Hill attack on January 6th 2021.

Yet, some elements mark a huge difference between the two events. First of all, the demonstrations in Kenya started peacefully a week before in 19 out of the 47 counties of the Country. They first started protesting against the 2024-2025 financial law’s tax increase and then other issues were included, up to President William Ruto’s resignation. In addition, a big part of the news covers not only the protest itself but also the violent response of Kenyan security forces.

The images coming from Nairobi are unbelievable: silhouettes of demonstrators escaping from a tear gas cloud, screams eclipsed by arms detonations and flash bombs. From June 18th to July 1st the Kenyan National Commission on human rights counted 39 victims and more than 350 injured people related to the demonstrations.

The only way to understand better the chaos going on in Nairobi is by analyzing a wider framework of the Kenyan context.

An oasis in the desert

Kenya is located in Eastern Africa, a region near to the Sahara desert that makes it particularly exposed to the consequences of climate change. The UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warns that the current difficulties in terms of economy, conflicts and diseases will get worse with famines and floods linked to El Niño phenomenon and then it will also affect local people's displacement.

In this framework, Kenya represents the main economic hub and the first trade partner for the European Union. In July 2024 the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between Nairobi and Bruxelles was implemented: it a milestone in the EU-Kenya strategic relations that will boost the bilateral exchange of goods and investments being the most ambitious sustainability agreement of the Union with an African country.

In addition, Nairobi is a fundamental hub in terms of regional security and stability and also a reliable western asset. Right when the West –mainly the US and France– seems to be leaving the African continent in the hands of other international players like the Russian Africa Corps –successors of the Wagner Group–, the American President Joe Biden defined Kenia a fundamental extra-NATO ally, making Nairoby the first and only African capital to receive such status.

Lastly, Kenya is a reliable democratic partner in the region and a central player for the African Union and also for the UN, which has one out of its four headquarters located here. This is why they are brought together by common interests, values and goals in terms of sustainability, green and digital transition, reinforcing the partnership and turning the Country into a model for the Global Gateway Strategy, the new “geopolitical” project designed during the first Von Der Leyen Commission.

Sand under the carpet

But all that glitters is not gold.

The violent repression enacted by the armed forces is only the latest example of a well rooted disease. Historically, Kenyan police officers have repeatedly proved to be corrupted, have been accused of illegitimate charges and detentions, even citizens’ murders without any consequence.

Njoki Wamai, researcher at the United States International University-Africa in Nairobi, observing the current situation stated: “All kidnappings and murders show how illiberal Kenya is, especially the government and its armed forces”

Another long-standing problem is the huge Kenyan public debt that reached 80 billion dollars, almost a third of the Country’s GDP. This numbers put Kenya in the same situation of the rest of the continent where more than a half of the population lives in Countries that pay more interest than what they invest in health and education.

The 2024-2025 financial law that initially started the demonstrations aims to stem Nairobi’s budget deficit through new taxes that should provide 2,7 billion dollars.

The proposal was in line with the austerity and renewal program of the agreement that was signed last June between Kenya and the International Monetary Fund. On the other hand, the population perceived these new taxes on basic goods like bread, oil and sugar as a measure that would have killed the economy and raised the cost of life beyond the current difficulties.

They interpreted this financial law as an outrage, especially considering that the current economic situation is largely due to a decade-long mismanagement of loans and debt reliance by a political establishment often marked by striking corruption.

This is why the protests reached a wider target, from the initial new law to the entire political elite of the Country, first of all President Ruto.

Unique protests

In this context, these protests become even more significant. In particular, there are three elements that makes them unique and difficult for the government to stop, as explains the Kenyan Professor Awino Okech on The Conversation.

The first point is that there are no civil organizsations or political parties behind the protests; the second is the use of crowdsourcing to help each other and put together some money to pay for hospital bills or funerary procedures for those who get injured or fell victim during the demonstrations. Lastly, the widespread scepticism of the population regarding the establishment turns the distance between President Ruto and the demonstrators insurmountable.

Commenting on the events of June 25th, Ruto described the protests as “subversive” and claimed that the new law debate was being “sabotaged by dangerous people” and that it was important to differentiate democratic freedom of speech and “criminals pretending to be peaceful demonstrators”. Later on, when the proteses reached a wider support, he took a step back and withdrew the law.

Ruto changed his plan when he realised he couldn’t discredit the protests. First, he faced a group of furious demonstrators on X. Then, along with the leader of the opposition Raila Odinga, he organized a six days long “multi-sector forum” starting on July 15th aiming to set up a dialogue between all political and social stakeholders on the most compelling issues affecting Kenya.

Odinga participation in this forum seems to be suggesting a national unity government, backed also by the fact that Ruto fired his whole cabinet except for the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Vice President. On the other hand, the call for directed to the “Gen Z” –joung people born between the late ‘90s and before 2010– is still problematic, in fact they represent the big majority of the demonstrators, a disenchanted and engaged group, with no leader or ideology but united and able to gather on the web and then act on the streets.

An amorphous but yet compact group, hard to corrupt, intimidate or “balkanize”.

Young people in a young democracy

The Kenyan writer Carey Baraka wrote on the New York Times: “These events mark a seismic shift in Country where young people were called apathetic. During the 2022 general elections, most of them didn’t even register for the vote, now they represent a crucial part of a movement that fights with their life for all the democratica promises made”.

In a Country where 80% of the population is under 36 years old, Kenyan young people potentially have an electoral power that their European peers can only dream of. At the same time, it is impossible to compare the challenges that Kenyan young people have to face with the ones in Europe, to begin with police brutality and a self-referential ruling class.

In this perspective, these protests can help them raise awareness on their role and power redirecting their Country’s politics, in the polls and on the streets.

If attacking the Parliament in a specific context is synonym of a dark period for democracy, in another one the same event may represent the pursuit of the same democracy, along with a vitality capable of deconstructing the failing power establishment.

In a period where the right to dissent and protest, fundamental in every democracy worth of this name, is at risk –even in our Bel Paese and in the Old Continent where Amnesty International reveals to be more and more stigmatisation, criminalisation and repression of pacific demonstrations– the activism of Kenyan young people sends a message that goes beyond East Africa: Democracy must not be taken for granted but it is a hard fought value that must be protected.

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