A virtual meeting with the Generation Z youth who started the street protests in Kenya that later degenerated as we know. This was launched yesterday by Kenyan President William Ruto, after a meeting in Diani with his ministers, in which he said he was willing to review some of the government's guidelines and ready 'for significant changes', without however specifying which ones.
A poster of the meeting is circulating on the net, which will take place on his X profile, on the platform most congenial to Gen Z, where activists, bloggers, artists and many ordinary young people who use digital technology have been calling every day for more than a month, first for the financial bill to be withdrawn, then for the resignation of the president and some ministers, accused of corruption and misuse of public funds. The same issues are likely to be raised today. Ruto said he is doing an 'examination of conscience' and will act soon, certainly corruption is one of the fixed points of discussion, not least because the president has never spoken out clearly against politicians and the facts say he has not gone out of his way to try to eradicate this scourge that contributes significantly to the national debt.
"All Kenyans are invited to contribute to this dialogue as part of our collective effort to promote national renewal and create a better Kenya for all," reads a statement from the Executive Office of the President.
The youth also demand an account of what started as peaceful protests then degenerated, first with the harsh response of the security forces and the killing of demonstrators, then when criminals infiltrated the demonstrations, leading to public terror and the looting of businesses.
In the end, according to estimates of civil rights organisations, more than 40 people were killed, many of them shot by officers, even in plain clothes. The young people are now demanding action against the police leadership and the dismissal of the individual officers involved.
The appointment is for this afternoon, from 2 to 5 p.m. The most popular bloggers and activists fear, however, that it might be a 'piloted' meeting with ad hoc interlocutors and others blocked by the profile.