Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi has been part of countless demonstrations over the years, but the anti-government protests that hit the country last June and July defied all expectations.
Mwangi said he witnessed something unprecedented - a powerful awakening of the Kenyan youth who leveraged social media to mobilise against a finance bill which proposed a raft of tax hikes.
Protesters display a banner during the Anti-Finance Bill demonstrations along Kenyatta Avenue in Nairobi on June 20, 2024.
Photo credit: Billy Ogada | Nation Media Group
"The biggest mobilisers of the protest were the Gen Zs. They were on TikTok, Instagram and on X. The majority of the people in the streets were young people," Mwangi told the Thomson Reuters Foundation .
"For the first time in history, Kenyans were united for one purpose, to defeat the finance bill," he said. "It was us waking up to the power we have and becoming active citizens to demand accountability and meaningful change in our country."
The nationwide protests forced President William Ruto to make a historic U-turn by scrapping his reviled law, sacking cabinet ministers and pledging a slate of measures to cut wasteful spending of public funds.
Africa, home to the world's youngest population, has seen a wave of youth-led protests fuelled by frustrations over rampant corruption, poor governance, high living costs and rising unemployment.
Gen Z and millennials protested in Kenya, Ghana, Uganda, Nigeria and Mozambique in 2024, and some analysts expect this activism to intensify in 2025 as grievances persist.
Youthful protestors demonstrate against the Finance Bill 2024 on Kimathi Street, Nairobi on June 20 2024.
Photo credit: Francis Nderitu | Nation
Murithi Mutiga, program director for Africa for the International Crisis Group, said frustrations partly arise from Africa's struggle to recover from economic shocks like COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war, which has driven up food and fuel prices.
There is also growing resentment among a generation increasingly aware of its rights, empowered by the internet to take action for change, said Mutiga.
"The young want more than their parents. They are more informed. They are more politically active," he said. "I think it's possible that you'll see more protests in 2025."
Africa has the fastest growing, youngest population of any continent, with 70% of sub-Saharan Africa's people under the age of 30.
Fueling their growing wave of disillusionment are scarce job opportunities. Some 53 million youth - more than one in five - in sub-Saharan Africa are not engaged in any form of employment, education or training, says the U.N.'s International Labour Organization.
A 2024 survey of African youth found three-quarters of respondents said it was difficult to find a job, and two-thirds were dissatisfied with their governments' efforts to create employment opportunities.
The survey, which polled more than 5,600 Africans ages 18 to 25 in 13 countries, also found that four in five were worried about corruption, most notably in the government, private sector and the police.
"Most are dissatisfied with efforts to tackle corruption and there is widespread support for a range of policies to address it," the Africa Youth Survey said.
Political analysts and observers said it was not surprising to see youth beginning to push back against their governments.
A protester displays posters in a cloud of teargas during anti-finance bill demonstrations on Moi Avenue, Nairobi on June 18, 2024.
Photo credit: Sila Kiplagat | Nation Media Group
Aslak Orre, a senior researcher at Chr. Michelsen Institute, a development research institute based in Norway, said young people across the region were exasperated with poor economic growth, few jobs, high public debt and austerity measures.
"And for that, they blame the politicians from a different generation, who they see as working for themselves rather than the public good," Orre said.
In Mozambique, a disputed October election that extended the Frelimo party's 49-year rule sparked more than three months of protests against corruption, living costs and unemployment.
"We are demanding change," said Ronaldo António, a 25-year-old street vendor in Maputo, during December protests when crowds marched, whistled and chanted, blocking traffic with trash bins, stones and tyres.
"We eat chicken feet and necks while government officials are eating the chickens," he added.
In Ghana, ahead of December 7 presidential and parliamentary elections, young people mounted street protests against the nation’s debt crisis and high inflation, which have triggered the worst economic crisis in a generation.
Ghana's President-elect John Dramani Mahama, 66, speaks with Reuters journalists in his office after general elections, in Accra, Ghana, December 13, 2024.
Photo credit: Reuters
Ghanaian filmmaker Kwame Addae, 26, said he voted for businessman Nana Kwame Bediako, even though he knew the newcomer would not win against seasoned politician and former president John Mahama.
"We are tired of the status quo, and I wanted someone like him (Bediako) that was thinking of the digital economy as a means to provide jobs and move us to a modern Ghana," said Addae, adding that Bediako’s political message resonated with young voters.
Activists noted that the protests across Africa had particularly significant impact because young people can skillfully wield digital activism.
In Mozambique, Ângelo do Rosário, who is known as Maxh on social media, said he used his 1.2 million Facebook and more than 300,000 TikTok, Instagram and YouTube followers respectively to encourage young Mozambicans to demand their rights.
"(We demand) quality education in Mozambique, the availability of a decent health service and all of this the people believe is the result of the bad governance we have in Mozambique," said Rosário.
Police killings, abductions
Hundreds of young people have been detained or killed in clashes with police, and scores of protesters remain missing.
In Kenya, some prominent rights groups have accused authorities of a cover-up of dozens of alleged police killings, unexplained abductions and illegal detentions related to the Gen Z protests.
Kenya's National Commission on Human Rights, a government-funded body, recorded 82 cases of enforced disappearances in the period between the protests, from June and December. Of those, 29 people remain unaccounted for. At least 40 people have been killed.
In Mozambique, at least 278 people have been killed in police crackdowns against protesters, and more than 2,000 families have fled and sought refuge in neighbouring Malawi.
In November, Nigeria charged 76 people, including children, with treason and inciting a military coup after deadly August protests erupted against economic hardship and spiralling inflation.
Nigerian activist Rinu Oduala - one of the organisers of prominent #EndSARS protests against police brutality in 2020 - warned that youth uprisings are unlikely to die down anytime soon.
"Protests by young people aren't a crime, we are doing it out of love for our countries and hope for a better future - they must be seen as calls for change and what's rightfully ours," said Oduala, 24, who has more than 800,000 followers on X.
"But the lesson is clear: ignoring youth voices will be a huge political risk to any government going forward," she added.
