Who fears death when we are all the living dead? The Nazi Detention Camp
Yesterday in the morning, 25 June 2025, I posted a text on the social media site X that read: Nairobi City today looks like a Nazi Detention Camp. The police had blocked all roads to the State House, Parliament, and other state buildings. Protected using barbed wire, both the State House and Parliament looked like detention camps. The Central Business District of Nairobi city was quiet, ominous, and deserted except for the machinery of violence, reflected by the Kenyan police who were seen patrolling the city.
In the afternoon, suddenly our compatriots arrived from the underground like “my friend, the mole”, the metaphor Karl Marx used to toast the Chartists in 1848. The city was no longer quiet. There were movements of the people, the “detainees” of the dictatorship, to the Central Business District. Loud, bold, fearless, and daringly, they announced their arrival. It turned out that the police were deployed all over the country to stop any mass action glorifying and celebrating the Martyrs of the Gen Z revolution of June 25, 2024. In some areas, the police did not stop the demonstrating “detainees”. In Meru, Central Kenya, the Officer Commanding Central Police Station marched with his compatriots.
The killings did happen in Nairobi. A 19-year-old student was shot dead in Nairobi. A young woman was shot in her face with a rubber bullet. The police shot a young person dead in Matuu, Machakos County. And in Rongai, close to Nairobi two people are reported shot dead by the police. At the end of the day, 11 people had been confirmed dead, and over 400 injured. There were protests in 27 out of the 47 counties. The Kenya National Human Rights Commission, which was doing its investigation later in the day, stated that the police killed 19 people, injured 531, and arrested 179. They also reported two cases of individual rape, two cases of gang rape, and one attempted gang rape.
The violence in Nairobi Central Business District was covered brilliantly by young TikTokers and journalists, among others, the CNN correspondent, Larry Madowo, who is one of us. He covered the revolution in 2024. BBC News Africa reported that “thousands of people are taking part in demonstrations across the country”. Activist Boniface Mwangi, who is also the political leader of the radical UKWELI political party, was among the protestors who witnessed the police brutality.
The Communications Authority of Kenya (CAK) did not want the revolution televised or reported live. TV and radio stations were ordered not to broadcast the revolution. Some who resisted were shut down. Let me be clear. CAK’s action was unconstitutional and illegal. They invoked two articles without offering any evidence of a constitutional breach. CAK has clearly shown that it has neither independence nor integrity.
The glorification and celebration of the Martyrs of 25 June 2024 was still a success. I glorify and celebrate the courage, fearlessness, and patriotism of the Gen Z and Millennials yet again. At the time of writing, I have no full details of those martyred and those injured. We all knew this would happen. Who fears death when we are all the living dead? No one is safe. Our daughters and sons, grandsons and granddaughters, are in the trenches many of us were in the past, fighting for the liberation of the Motherland. I never thought I would live to enjoy that revolutionary oxygen.
Let’s clarify that the Gen Z and Millennials who were part of the revolution in June last year and June this year belong to various radical movements and political parties. These activists have occupied the various sites of struggle: human rights, social justice, feminism, workers’ rights, the rights of peasants, gay rights movement, artist movement, professionals, and intellectuals. They can be described as the broad Left in Kenya that is anti-imperialism and anti-comprador bourgeoisie. They are activists who are committed to an alternative political leadership in Kenya.
Roman Catholic Archbishops, Bishops, and Diplomats from the West Speak out
On Tuesday, 24 June 2025, the Archbishops and Bishops of the Roman Catholic Church, whose flocks are estimated at 51 per cent of the Kenyan population, called a press conference in Nairobi. The fundamental essence of their message was that the Constitution of Kenya, 2010, has to be obeyed and implemented. They focused on the right to demonstrate peacefully, and unarmed, under Article 37 of the Constitution. That Article decrees that Every person has the right, peaceably and unarmed, to assemble, to demonstrate, to picket, and to present petitions to public authorities.
It is common knowledge that Kenyans demonstrate peacefully and unarmed. Even when they are visited with violence by police armed with teargas and water cannons, Kenyans are known to flee to safety. There has not been any reported case when Kenyans, in self-defence, have resisted the police violence. There have been cases where the police use their informers and the militias of the politicians, both popularly and correctly called, “Goons”, to terrorize Kenyans who are protesting peacefully and unarmed. The Archbishops and Bishops of the Roman Catholic Church had no doubt about these facts when they advised and cautioned the government and its police force to comply with the decrees of the Constitution. Indeed, the “goons” torch properties, loot shops, and cause mayhem that the police blame on demonstrators. This year is no different.
The objective and purpose of Article 37 is to protect the mass action of Kenyans who are peaceful and unarmed. The police are not expected to use any force in their duty to protect Kenyans undertaking mass action. Indeed, the police are supposed to arrest their “goons” should they join the mass action. The Archbishops and Bishops rightly emphasized that life is sacred and that governments that cannot guarantee the security of lives and property of their citizens are illegitimate. On the same day, June 24, 2025, the ambassadors from the U.S. and Europe, including the British and Canadian High Commissioners based in Nairobi, reinforced the message of the Archbishops and Bishops.
One would have thought that those two groups have such political muscle that the government of Kenya would think again before it defies these politically important voices. It seems the culture of our dictatorship is a response, popularly spoken in Sheng, Mtado?/What will you or what can you do? One is reminded of Shakespeare’s statement, paraphrased as “those whom the gods wish to destroy first make mad.” The good news is that these two politically powerful groups have spoken. Both are invariably the supporters of the Kenyan dictatorship and part of the problem we face in Kenya. Kenyans can only hope that they will be consistent in supporting the rule of law and the implementation of the Constitution. Indeed, the 21st Century is one of global solidarities and the two groups also represent global citizens outside our borders. Both groups have, in the past, played key roles in constitution-making and urging for peace and the rule of law in Kenya. Kenyans, however, must know they are on their own and they have to liberate themselves from the KANU dictatorship that turns 62 on 12 December 2025.
The Gen Z and Millennials revolution of last year invoked the provisions of the Constitution to craft political demands that were revolutionary. They were clear that the struggle for revolutionary social transformation must continue. They showed great courage and determination in the faces of death and torture. Indeed, over 100 Kenyans paid the ultimate price. They demanded the implementation of the Constitution, decried corruption, and violations of their material interests by the government. They reinforced the view that the current political leadership of compradors had failed to bring about patriotic social transformation for 61 years, and that there was no evidence on their part that this was their mission. The solution was, as seen by these young Kenyans, and remains, that the dictatorship must give way to a new and alternative political leadership that loves the Kenyan people and acts in their interests.
The political and clarion call of the Gen Z and Millennials was that they were leaderless (read collective leadership), tribe-less, and fearless. Those politicians who accused them of being anarchical and unaware of the political vacuum they supported, and without an agenda for Kenya, I believe, have later come to believe that they were wrong in that assessment. One of the great victories of the revolution by the Gen Z and Millennials is the identification of the lack of a people’s opposition to the 61-year-old KANU dictatorship. The so-called opposition joined the government to form a broad-based government. History records quite clearly that Hon. Raila Odinga has reinforced four KANU dictatorships at critical points of their existence. He is one of the orphans of the KANU dictatorship. Gen Z and Millennials know very well that the people’s opposition must struggle against both factions of the compradors in the government and the opposition. A people’s opposition must neither have any links with these factions nor ever think of the so-called “handshakes/hand cheques.” It is no longer in doubt that Honorable Raila Odinga’s genius of mobilization and organization has been used in support of the dictatorships. We are in a good stage of liberation, when the lies of the compradors were useful because of the politics of division. The Gen Z and Millennials have announced from the rooftops that they are tribeless.
Aluta Continua!/The Struggle Continues
In glorifying and celebrating the struggles of our comrades who died or were injured last year, and this year, the commitment of the Gen Z and Millennials and those of other generations who support our liberation, is clear. The links and continuities of our struggle for liberation from imperialism and its agents, the compradors, must continue. And we in unison boldly, fearlessly, and courageously add: Vitoria e C’erta!/ Victory is Certain; Patria O Muertel! Homeland/Motherland or Death!
Willy Mutunga was Chief Justice & President of the Supreme Court Kenya, 2011-2016; and is Adjunct Professor in Public Law at the University of Kabarak La