The gospel according to Moses Kuria, Kenya’s presidential adviser, is that Kenya’s Gen Z fit the description of powerful, useful and destructive.
In a 9 p.m. Citizen TV interview on Jan., 8, 2025, Kuria said that whereas the youth of Kenya below 25 years of age make up 75% of the country’s population, the 3 million 60+ years old make up a mere 6% of the population. He said that the Gen Z were, are and will remain powerful and concluded that Kenya belongs to the youth.
Kuria went further to reveal that of Kenya’s 22 million registered voters only 15 million go to vote. Going by Kuria’s 75:6 population ratios the Gen Z are the majority of voters and again the majority of the registered non-voters. Seen here is the wasted GenZ power at the ballot box.
The potential usefulness of the Gen Z is seen in their creativity and innovativeness. Suffice it to mention the innovative communication and crowd mobilization approach displayed during the 2024 “Reject the finance bill” demonstration and the innovative cartoons in social media to demonstrate the innovativeness inherent in the Gen Zs. These events demonstrated the power of the Gen Zs to do many things including the potential power to use the ballot box to their and the country’s benefit.
To quote Kuria, “When power is not useful it becomes destructive.” He thinks that the Gen Z could convert their energy into power at the ballot. He implies that when they do not vote then their usefulness diminishes. Using the example that a panga (machete) can be utilized usefully to harvest crops but it could also be used to kill, Kuria implies that the innovativeness in the Gen Z can be used both negatively and positively.
I interpret Moses Kuria’s sentiments to mean that the youth can be both useful and destructive. A lot may depend on how WE handle the youth. The WE here implies the government, the school system, the parents, and the politicians.
What entrepreneurship approach do I see in addressing the above Moses Kuria gospel of powerful, useful and destructive?
In entrepreneurship we talk of creative destruction being the deliberate dismantling of established processes in order to make way for improved processes. I may give M-PESA as an example of creative destruction in Kenya. It dismantled the post office method of money transmission and become powerful and useful in society. A creative destruction approach to handling the GenZ could in my opinion propel our country and economy to greater heights.
In the spirit of the phrase, “identifying a problem is halfway solving it”, I would think that the government (in the WE above) has inadequately involved the youth in its development process. Participation could be strengthened by including more and more youth in the design, implementation, monitoring, reporting and evaluation of instruments, strategies and programmes. This is especially now that the Gen Z have shown their potential usefulness through their creative destruction approach to demonstrations.
The youth could be more empowered as agents of change if they were better educated on social issues, provided with appropriate platforms for their voices, and offered more opportunities for community involvement. They could be encouraged and enabled to participate more in decision-making.
From the political front it would appear that despite the continuous massive youth support for the politicians, the latter deceive them. The lies from politicians to the youth have become a vicious cycle that plays out in every general election. The said vicious cycle must be addressed, perhaps by punishing the liars in one way or another for is telling lies not an offence!
The educational system at all levels has a rather rigid structure for pupils and students to conform to. The curriculum is designed on a one-size-fits-all basis detailing the exact scope and sequence of what everyone needs to learn and when.
The teacher-centered delivery methods make the student a passive rote learner who focuses on memorizing facts instead of developing critical thinking and problem solving skills. The approach does not adequately encourage students to take responsibility for their own learning. Hence students become overly reliant on the teacher for information and guidance. When out of college the graduates are easily manipulated like I the case of politicians above.
In teacher-centered learning with grade-based written examinations, educational institutions are often “wrong” on failure because they tend to view it as a negative outcome, discouraging students from taking risks and learning from mistakes. This hinders creativity, innovation, and overall growth, while a more productive approach would be to spell FAIL as First Attempt In Learning and see failure as a valuable learning opportunity and encourage students to persevere through challenges.
Parenting plays a role too. Scolding kids for “failure at school” may have a more negative than positive impact on child personality development. This is especially the case where the school system emphasizes achieving grades based on memorization and test-taking skills rather than deep understanding and problem-solving.
Parents who insist on cultural conformity could be doing a disservice to their kids. Statements like, “during our days this and that was done/not done, hence my kids must do likewise” do not help kids fit in the culturally dynamic world. Such conformity can stifle independency and by extension creativity and innovation. If, perhaps, all the GenZ were conformists then the few who rose to kill Kenya’s finance bill and contribute to the cabinet reshuffle which some have called cosmetic, would not have been.
Parental overindulging of kids can also have a negative effect on their development. Yes, many kids love stuff, and many parents love giving it to them. But research shows that when you give your kids whatever they desire, they miss out on skills related to mental strength, such as self-discipline.
Kids should grow up knowing that it is possible to achieve what they want — if they work for it. Parents can teach their kids learn self-control by setting clear rules for things like finishing homework before screen time or doing chores to boost allowance (so they can buy things on their own, while knowing they earned it).
Where I come there is a saying, “obiya enjusi wabiya nengokho yosi” or blame the fox and the hen also. It is used when a fox has snatched a hen and run away with it. Much as the farmer will blame the fox she will also blame the hen for straying away to make it easy to be caught by the fox. So, much as the WE should be blamed for youth predicaments, the youth themselves should also be blamed. History shows that Kenyan youth have failed to learn from many of the past lessons. During election campaigns, the youth become easy puppets for politicians. They receive cash handouts and bribes in return for blind loyalty to the politicians. Well one can argue that the government has not provided employment opportunities for them hence their going for handouts hence place the government squarely in this. The school system that does not equip the youth with skills and attitudes for self-employment may not escape it either.
Many youths do sell their votes, their respect, and any dignity they have to the politicians. They worship the politicians who are their ethnic demigods. But after the politicians get what they wanted the youth remain “kwa mataa” i.e. stranded. Their power and usefulness destroy them just like Moses Kuria implied. The youth could learn from these past cases.
To the government: WE can ignore 75% of the population at OUR own peril.
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