The issue today for protestors is to stay together and keep up the momentum while working for longer-term, more general objectives. Additionally, they must choose how to react to President Ruto's invitation of conversation, which he announced on Wednesday without providing any details.
Protesters claim that despite the country's robust economic development, many young people still face poor employment possibilities, and President William Ruto's rejection of the budget law on Wednesday is but one sign of these issues.
With its widespread mobilization of Kenyans across racial and regional divides and rejection of governmental leadership, the movement is unique in history. Elites have traditionally spearheaded protests in Kenya, which often resulted in agreements on power sharing that gave the protestors little in the way of concrete advantages.
The issue today for protestors is to stay together and keep up the momentum while working for longer-term, more general objectives. Additionally, they must choose how to react to President Ruto's invitation of conversation, which he announced on Wednesday without providing any details.
The majority of those participating in the recent demonstrations, according to writer and activist Nanjala Nyabola, were driven by justifiable and deeply held complaints about the administration.
"Until those grievances are addressed, it's improbable that they're going to be motivated to make concessions."
It is yet unclear how the dispersed, non-leadership movement, which was mostly organized on social media, will carry out its goals in the future and will likely spark internal discussion.
The Kenya Coalition on Youth, Peace and Security is a civil society organization, and Christine Odera, co-chair, said that in order to represent the concerns of youth and engage with the government, the organization has to create more formalized structures.
Odera, a protester, stated, "If we go natural then we might lose the whole conversation." "The president has said that we must hold talks. We can't all sit in a stadium and talk to one other."
Some people strongly disagree.
A grassroots activist organization in a low-income Nairobi neighborhood called Social Justice Centers Working organization is led by Ojango Omondi, who expressed concern that the movement may be tainted by politics if official institutions were established and national representatives were chosen.
"We don't need to negotiate anything," he said. "Better living circumstances are all we want. We just ask that the leaders cease funding their opulent lifestyle with our resources."
Unity question
From planning funerals for the almost two dozen persons slain in confrontations with police on Tuesday to forcing recall elections among members of parliament, Omondi said there was enough to keep the demonstrators busy throughout the course of the previous week.
The government's subsequent attempt to approve a finance law, which is required to pay for expenses in the next fiscal year, might be another crucial event. Protesters believe the government will continue to attempt to force through tax increases.
In a nation where protests have often been sparked by ethnic affiliations, the latest youth-led protests have distinguished themselves by fostering solidarity around shared issues.
But fissures are starting to show.
In an effort to remove the president from office, some demonstrators demanded that Thursday's scheduled march on the presidential mansion proceed in spite of Ruto's reversal on the tax rises. Some dismissed the notion as a risky tactic.
Ultimately, demonstrations occurred in a number of places, but to a lesser extent than on Tuesday.
A human rights activist warned that some tensions were reviving in Ruto's birthplace and political bastion of Eldoret, where thousands of people from several ethnic groups went to the streets on Tuesday after the president withdrew the measure.
CEO of the Center for Human Rights and Mediation Nicholas Omito said that protestors belonging to Ruto's Kalenjin ethnic group were saying that since the law was withdrawn, the demonstrations need to come to a stop. Kikuyu protestors of ethnic background said they should go on till Ruto quit.
The author, Nyabola, acknowledged that the nation's long history of ethnic divide could not be reversed, despite the unity shown when Kenyans from all walks of life bravely came to the streets in protest against their government.
" You are never going to get rid of it completely," she said. "Nevertheless for now the class and wealth disparity between politicians as well as ordinary people has been the focus."
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