‘A revolution is building’: can young people force change across Africa?

From mid-June to early August, young people in Kenya hit the streets protesting against what they described as runaway corruption and high taxes levied by President William Ruto’s regime. In Uganda, what was shaping up as protests against the government in July were nipped in the bud by police after President Yoweri Museveni’s warning that those thinking of such protests “were playing with fire”.

Nigeria saw short-lived protests against the poor handling of the economy by President Bola Tinubu’s government.

But beyond these protests, Africa’s demographic bulge finds itself at a crossroads; distrustful of the ruling class but seemingly unable to drive the change.

Last week, more than 400 young people, mostly in their early to mid-20s, converged at the UN offices in Nairobi for the Africa Youth Forum 2024 in order to stimulate an intergenerational dialogue that promotes the perspectives of all age groups in a continent where older ones’ viewpoints are rarely questioned.

“We are here to share our values, our challenges and harmonise the potential within the young people in Africa,” says Mohamed Abdulhalim from the coastal Kenyan county of Lamu.

The continent has the youngest population in the world with more than 400 million people aged between 18 and 35 and by 2030, it is estimated that 42% of all young people entering the workplace will be African.

Abdulhalim says the generational gap that exists between the youth and Africa’s leadership denies young people a chance to show their abilities, energy, and their contribution to the continent’s economy, hence the widespread protests in Kenya and elsewhere in Africa.

“Look, we have the capacity, but we don’t have a platform to showcase [our abilities],” says Abdulhalim. “And that is the reason we went to the streets. We are saying our voices must count, that we must be part of the decision-making process, including those of us from far away in Lamu.”

After the protests in Kenya, the government was forced to drop the contentious finance bill that contained harsh taxation measures. Ruto also disbanded his cabinet hoping the measures would appease the young protesters, or the generation Z. His pleas for dialogue were shrugged off as they demanded that he too, step down.

The young protesters in Kenya styled themselves as “leaderless and tribeless”, thus complicating government efforts to arrange any dialogue. Without dialogue, however, organisers of the Nairobi meeting say Africa’s youth will have no meaningful contribution to state affairs and will always be at the mercy of crafty politicians.

“Dialogue is not being naive,” says Kjell Magne Bondevik, the former prime minister of Norway and founder of the Oslo Center that convened the Nairobi forum. “Dialogue is about listening and learning from each other. It is about identifying common values and strengthening the youth’s participation in political parties.”

Faith Norah Lukosi, a youth representative in a national fund meant to assist young Kenyans set up commercial enterprises has in the past tried to get young people on the negotiating table with mixed success. In 2021, she wrote a scathing piece in the the Daily Nation, where she castigated the youth for sitting on the fence and waiting for handouts from politicians.

“Kenya is ripe for revolution led by youth”, read the title of her article. But they have failed “to portray themselves as the solution, instead flocking around political heavyweights for financial expediency and other short-term goals … easily swayed by the highest financial bidder in the market, regardless of what one stands for,” she wrote.

Lukosi says: “I received so many negative reactions from people thereafter. Some said, ‘Do you want us to burn our country down?’ But I am happy my sentiments have been vindicated in 2024. A revolution is building up and young people are ready for it. Kenya’s gen Zs have led the way. I believe we are on the right trajectory.”

Rwanda has not witnessed the kind of political and economic protests seen in Kenya or Uganda, as young people in the country still feel the best way to forestall such chaotic scenes is by continued government engagement, “something that we have been mentioning over and over again”, says Deborah Mukundwa from the capital, Kigali.

“I think we also need to understand our leaders,” Mukundwa says. “What are they up to and how can the youth contribute into that thought process? For example, I have the privilege of accessing quality education, a privilege of expression and being informed about national matters, but I recognise the majority of young people are lacking such privileges.”

Not just education but digital access is a major challenge for many – in 2021 only 43% of Africans had access to the internet, below a global average of 66%.

As of January 2024, about 74% of web traffic in Africa was via mobile phones, over 14 percentage points higher than the world average. This is down to cost and the availability of infrastructure needed for computers with fixed-line internet connections.

“Youths in Africa lack internet accessibility and have an education system that doesn’t really serve them in order to execute the different agendas and matters that we are talking about at this meeting,” says Mukundwa.

Without physical and intellectual infrastructure, she says Africa’s youth will not reach their potential, will not have any tangible input in the global, regional, or national agendas, nor will they understand what really matters to them and how policies formulated at the highest levels affect them.

“We are lacking that meaningful youth engagement, an engagement that goes beyond inviting young people to forums, inviting them to speak. They need an engagement that enforces that collaboration and partnership to the execution of different projects and agendas, an engagement that is more meaningful and that says, ‘We see you, we see your project, and we support you with resources.’ We are not only present at these forums, but have safe spaces for such engagement,” she says.

Kalonzo Musyoka, a former vice-president and key opposition figure in Kenya, says it will no longer be business as usual. Young people, he says, are offering the continent a new viewpoint and a desire to innovate “as long as they are spared state-sanctioned brutality”.