Veteran politician Hussein Mohamed has urged the youth and other Kenyans to cease protests and engage in dialogue with the government. Mohamed, who served as the Member of Parliament for Dujis (now Garissa Township) for 30 years, called on President William Ruto to listen to the young people, emphasizing that he would lose nothing by doing so.
Mohamed, who held ministerial positions during President Daniel arap Moi’s regime and served as an assistant minister in Kibaki’s administration, noted that while the demonstrations began peacefully, they have been infiltrated by individuals intent on looting and destroying property.
“I want to tell them that as our children and grandchildren we love you. You are the future leaders of this country. You are the owners of this great country. And we are happy for you because you started a good cause to tell our government that what they are doing is not right and it has yielded fruit to a big extent,” Mohamed said.
Speaking at his residence in Garissa, the retired politician stated that although the Constitution clearly grants the right to demonstrate and picket, maintaining peaceful protests is not feasible since opportunistic individuals often exploit the situation to engage in looting and property destruction.
The young demonstrators, commonly referred to as Gen Zs—those born between 1997 and 2010—have been protesting nationwide for a month. The protests initially began in response to the proposed Finance Bill, 2024, which has since been withdrawn.
The demonstrators expressed their anger by raiding Parliament following the bill’s passage. Subsequently, President William Ruto announced that he had listened to the concerns of Kenyans and would not sign the bill into law.
“I think the government has heard you loud and clear. They back-tracked from the Finance Bill. In the first place, they were adamant and were not listening but later they gave in and the President himself promised that he is going to withdraw that bill, which he later did,” Mohamed said.
“So, I want to appeal to our young generation, who are like my grandchildren, to kindly stop these demonstrations and accept dialogue, which to me is the best thing. It is through talking that solutions to problems are always found.”
He lauded the President’s recent dismissal of his Cabinet.
Mohamed challenged the youth to get IDs and voting cards as those are the best weapons to remove a government they deem unfit to lead the country.
“My free advice is please start preparing for 2027, which is not far. Get the important documents like ID cards and the voter’s card and on voting day wake up very early in the morning and vote for the leaders of your choice and send home those you don’t want. That is the best way to punish governments,” he said.
