By Godwin Otwoma
Published June 26, 2024
In early 2023 when Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s Premier, tried to sneak in changes that would give him powers to influence the selection of his country’s Supreme Court judges, the country broke into protests that lasted for months. Israel’s Gen Z powered those protests.
An assessment by Israeli intelligence service warned him that the divisions in the country would tempt Israel’s enemies to strike. And, indeed, Hamas struck on October 7, 2023.
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In early 2021 the Myanmar military took over the country from the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu-Kyi. Traditionally, several ethnic-based rebel groups have existed in the country formerly known as Burma but they have been weak, scattered and ineffectual. This disunity has been exploited since the 1940s to oppress the minority communities. This, however, changed when, in response to the military takeover, Gen Z left the comfort of the cities and took arms and have ferociously pushed back junta forces. It was only possible because they overcame deep ethnic and religious differences among the rebel factions and forged unity of purpose.
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From the Occupy movements in US American universities to Regime Change in West Africa, Gen Z are actively shaping the kind of world they would like to live in.
In the current Kenyan protests over taxation they have in a few days reset decades old nature of protests based on ethnicity, personalities and political formations. They promised to storm Parliament and kept their word, lighting a bonfire in the process and stealing the Mace. And they don’t think it’s a big deal.
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The point here is Gen Z members are very consequential when they engage. From President William Ruto’s speech delivered on June 25 at 9:00 PM from State House in Nairobi I get the feeling he does not really grasp the magnitude of what he is dealing with. Yet.
And hey, Gen Z members are pointing out that about 91 percent of Ruto’s speech was AI-generated. What do you tell these kids, surely?
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