Youths Demand Good Governance In Mass Protests Across Africa

Protest movements are emerging all over Africa. Thousands of young people are taking to the streets of Kenya, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, and other countries to demonstrate and demand good governance. They tweet and demand genuine democracy and social change against authoritarian governments. 

Despite differences in the background, nature, and way these protests emerged, they express a growing legitimate crisis in African governments and frustrations about failed promises, the enrichment of political elites, and the undermining of democratic institutions.

From Kenya to Nigeria to Uganda, Africa’s youth-led movements are growing on the youngest continent in the world, where 70% of the population is under 30. According to reports, the average age of an African president is 62, and youth protesters say they are frustrated with an ageing leadership that does not hear their growing calls for change.

Here are some youth-led protests across the continent:

SENEGAL

In February, several young people in Senegal, where more than 60% of the population is under 25, led nationwide anti-government protests in its capital, Dakar, after a decision to delay a highly anticipated presidential election from February to December. The protest soon spread to the streets of major cities. Demonstrators, including children, rejected former President Macky Sall’s 10-month election delay, which youths said threatened the country’s longstanding democracy.

The protest was called by the Resistance Front, an alliance of campaign groups and opposition parties, which demanded elections be held before April and the release of the present Prime Minister and President Ousmane Sonko and Bassirou Diomaye Faye who the Macky Sall government imprisoned. 

Sall eventually reversed the decision to stall the election, paving the way for the election of Africa’s youngest leader, Bassirou Diomaye Faye.

UGANDA 

Young climate activists from Uganda have protested against the proposed East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), which would ship crude from Lake Albert in Uganda to a port on Tanzania’s Indian Ocean coast. 

Activists campaigning against the environmental and social impacts of EACOP have been beaten and arrested and faced online surveillance and abductions, according to the New York-based Human Rights Watch.

Stephen Kwikiriza, one of the key activists who works for Uganda’s Environment Governance Institute (EGI), a non-profit organisation, was abducted in Kampala on 4 June, his employer said. He was beaten, questioned and then abandoned hundreds of miles from the capital city. 

Reports say 11 environmental activists “were kidnapped, arbitrarily arrested, detained or subjected to different forms of harassment by the Ugandan authorities between May 27 and June 5, 2024”.

KENYA

On June 18, thousands of mostly young protesters took to the streets in Nairobi, Kenya, to protest the “2024 Finance Bill,” blowing whistles and chanting slogans in a show of anger and frustration by Gen Z against the government.

Led mainly by young Kenyans, the protest began on Tuesday in Nairobi and spread nationwide on Thursday, June 20. It indicated the widespread discontent over President William Ruto’s economic policies in a country already grappling with a high cost of living.

Following the deadly protest where government forces killed more than 20, Ruto dramatically withdrew the controversial 2024 finance bill. “I concede, and therefore, I will not sign the 2024 finance bill, and it shall subsequently be withdrawn. The people have spoken,” Ruto said in a press briefing on June 26. On July 11, Ruto dismissed all but one cabinet minister as the protest intensified.

Despite the withdrawal of the finance bill and the dismissal of his cabinet members, angered by the government’s use of excessive force on protesters, which led to the killing of many,  the protesters continued to call for the resignation of the president, #RutoMustGo.

NEW KENYAN-INSPIRED PROTESTS. 

UGANDA: Emboldened by Kenya’s anti-finance bill protests, neighbouring Ugandans also took to social media to spur a similar pushback against their government. They planned a march to parliament on July 23 to call out government corruption.

Youths inspired by their Kenyan counterparts took to the streets in Kampala in anti-corruption protests – a move authoritarian President Yoweri Museveni warned was “playing with fire.” Ugandan forces besieged the activists’ headquarters on Monday, and authorities arrested more than 40 people – including three opposition lawmakers – at banned protests on July 23.

NIGERIA: Hoping to mirror the successes of Kenyan protests, young Nigerians also took to social media to organise a demonstration on August 1 against the ongoing cost-of-living crisis. Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has called on youths not to join the “sinister” protests as the government begs for more time to address economic hardships.

From Nigeria to Uganda and across Africa, leaders are watching closely the youth-led anti-government protests in Kenya, which experts say could inspire youths across the continent.

As the Kenayan youth-led protests morphed into calls for Ruto’s resignation over bad governance, political experts say these demands for the government to take immediate action against issues that have plagued society, including corruption, could have ripple effects across Africa.

Should leaders on the continent not address citizens’ concerns, Kenya’s recent anti-tax protests are likely to reverberate (as they currently do) across the continent, triggering a renewal of nationalism among youth while sending cold chills down the spine of leaders from Nigeria to Kenya to Malawi to Uganda who are accused of bad governance.