The Youth Shall Inherit The Revolution

Freedom means no fear.

In 1985, my parents walked with me to Westlands Primary School. My first day as a class one pupil. My parents had to buy me a school diary from the administration office.

In the diary, I had to record my Christian name, both parents' full names and contacts, my religion and other useless information. I would have thought my blood group would have been of importance, but no, they would rather know which foreign religion my family members had insisted on forcing on me.

The first pages of the diary had the Kenyan national anthem in English and Kiswahili, the loyalty pledge ( yes, we have one) and the Lord’s Prayer. Every morning we had to sing the anthem, recite the loyalty pledge, and pray for our damned souls. We did this under the watchful eye of a teacher who held a stick or ruler which he or she used to hit us if we did not stand still enough during the anthem, did not know all the words to the loyalty pledge or did not close our eyes while praying to our father who art in heaven.

It had never really occurred to me how much this indoctrination had taken effect until I happened on a Gen Z TikTok video. In his video, he asked us, the Gen Xers and older, if we expected them to be scared of government like we were. Fair question, only, we do not think it is fear; we refer to it as respect, discipline, religion, being responsible, anything but what we actually are. Fearful.

That is how we got where we are today, as Kenyans. Fear.

The coloniser came with religion and brutality. They gave you a silent god that needed a lot of your time and beseeching. A god that did not require you to reason. Then they brutalised you to discourage you from ever thinking of fighting back. And even if you felt aggrieved, they encouraged you to turn the other cheek and pray for your masters. Good masters, I mean leaders, come from the Lord.

When the animals that were more equal than us took over the farm, they found the tools of religion and brutality useful. So we had to have a religion, or you were a devil worshipper. Good citizens went to church every Sunday and did not drink alcohol and they modelled this part for us. Your children had to have Christian names to be registered in school. And if you questioned the animals who were now walking on two feet, eating eggs and drinking milk, you disappeared. Sometimes you reappeared after many days of torture. In those lonely days, in basements and cells, they permitted you to have only a bible for company.

Thankfully, not all of us are obligated to accept the status quo. Some fled to fight from the outside, while others fought from within. Those were days of whispers, darkness, and suspicion. Religious fanaticism and limited information. When I remember the number of times the world was supposedly ending, I giggle. 

Fear has made many people think they are good citizens. When a section of Kenyans dared to go against the grain, they were labelled, rowdy, unruly or hooligans. They are taunted with ‘Si uchawi, ni maombi’ chants. (It is not by witchcraft but by prayer) Because anyone who goes against the indoctrination has to be working for the devil. This desensitisation abetted untold brutality on a section of Kenyans in the name of God and country.

Now our children are challenging what we believe in. Even though I was sceptical and downright fearful for the next generations, I have found a new respect for these young people. They question everything and will not follow anything blindly. Gen Zs are matching to their beat. These kids are using technology to simplify and disseminate information, (one of them created ChatGPT to answer any question anyone might have on the controversial Kenya finance bill 2024). They are leveraging social media as a protest tool and best of all they do not know the loyalty pledge and might not even know all the words to the Lord’s prayer. Yet they are doing the work of God!

Nina Simone once said what freedom means to her, no fear! Our young people are free.

Now we, the oldies, must work on our fear, if only to grow old free from our invisible shackles. How does our fear manifest? Tribalism, corruption, apathy, religious fanaticism. So contrary to what we have believed and hang over our children, we do not know everything; we did not grow up in the best of times, we are held captive by the education system's ties to the past (people who went to Alliance, please enter rest), and we are extremely frightened of change. 

I am thrilled about the future. I had not been before, I must confess. But after many hours spent removing the log from my eye, I can see clearly now. The Kenyan youth is not interested in servitude, in being seen and not heard or in turning cheeks. They do not care to leave their fate to imaginary friends who do not vote. They are taking charge and expecting accountability from our leaders.

Dear Gen Z, we are proud of you. The future will be a better place. 

#RejectFinanceBill2024 #RejectNotAmmend

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