Senior advisor in President William Ruto’s council of economic advisors, Moses Kuria, has expressed fears ahead of a memorial of the Gen Z protests of 2024, which has been planned for Wednesday, June 25, 2025.
Speaking during a live TV show on Sunday, June 22, 2025, Kuria indicated that he hopes the memorial would be free from infiltration by goons, as had happened later into the protests of 2024.
“I am worried as a Kenyan, a parent and a leader. I have got some fears because even last year, I saw it coming; and just before June 25, 2024, I could see all the signs of something, and I was very much privy to the infiltration that happened,” Kuria said.
Infiltration by goons
“It was a very legitimate course by our children; the Gen Zs. I just hope that the same causes that infiltrated Gen Zs last year would not do it again.”
Kuria equally urged the organisers of the Wednesday protests to ensure no more lives are lost.
“What happened last year was quite unfortunate. I hope we are going to remember this day as a solemn day, and because of the unfortunate things that happened, you cannot celebrate the blood that was spilt with more blood,” Kuria noted.
“I hope whoever is organising the memorial will take all measures to ensure we do not lose more lives. It would be terrible; we cannot afford it again.”
The president’s advisor equally decried a creeping trend in the security sector, noting that life has been cheapened and deaths were starting to be viewed as statistics.
“We are at a place where this is now going to be institutionalised. Death is now going to be institutionalised; it has become so cheap; there must be some stigma around death. It has become so commonplace, socially and morally acceptable, and I can see it getting to dangerous levels if we continue to socialise ourselves that it is okay, legitimate and usual to have to have violence and loss of lives,” Kuria observed.
Condemns police brutality
He registered his disappointment with the security sector in the manner in which they have responded to protests, stating that his position that the security officers must exercise restraint when handling protesters has not changed.
“I am disappointed in how the government handles human rights and security. I may be the only person within the administration who has been very consistent; I condemned the abductions and extrajudicial killings,” Kuria observed.
The memorial is set to commemorate the Gen Z protests of 2024, which morphed from a movement calling for the withdrawal of the punitive Finance Bill of 2024 into a full-fledged protest against misgovernance.
