Maillu Out To Keep Gen Z Protest Fire Burning

As the anti-government protests led by Generation Zoomers (Gen Z) raged in June and July, African literary icon David Maillu saw an opportunity to tell a story on Kenya’s liberation struggle. It is an idea which had been in gestation for months following its conception a year ago during the anti-government protests organised by opposition leader Raila Odinga against the high cost of living....CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE

The outcome is his latest novel Push GEN Z Push Harder: Storm of Political Revolution, in which he seeks to keep the anti-government protests fire burning.

Through a spellbinding story of Matanga Karanja, a fictional character who is pressured by peers and his girlfriend Cheruto to get a job, the 126-page novel, published by African Comb Books, attempts to contextualise the youth-led protests which rocked President William Ruto’s administration in June and July by linking it to a set of unattended issues such as joblessness that have troubled the country since independence.

Although the characters in Dr Maillu’s novel are fictional, they operate in a real Kenyan society and identify with real Kenyan communities. Matanga, a young jobless graduate who calls Nairobi home, struggles with an identity crisis since he is adopted.

The book opens up with a shout-out to 32 individuals whom Dr Maillu, in the preface, elevates as worthy mentors to the politically conscious youth as “they have been creatively critical and progressive”.

They include activist Boniface Mwangi, author Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Narc Kenya leader Martha Karua, Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah, Nairobi senator Edwin Sifuna, cartoonist Godfrey Mwampembwa (Gado), Suba MP Millie Odhiambo, cleric Timothy Njoya, former Chief Justice Willy Mutunga and former Makueni Governor Kivutha Kibwana.

Just like in many of his previous works, Dr Maillu’s latest book is laced with explicit sexual content and strong political undertones often presented in commentaries and poems. To advance the central narrative, the novel uses a collection of poems, songs, cartoons, memes and assorted photographs capturing the drama that characterised the youth-led anti-government protests.

Matanga was among the youth who took part in the anti-government protests, where Mr Odinga was their idol. They were upbeat that the protests had created a good opportunity to run a bad administration out of town.

Understandably, they were disillusioned when Mr Odinga abandoned the cause and entered a political truce with President Ruto without attending to the high cost of living and other issues which had triggered the anti-government protests in the first place.

He joins a group of youth who plot the youth-led wave of anti-government protests which saw President Ruto shake up his administration after abandoning the Finance Bill 2024 which contained punitive tax proposals.

The wave of youth-led anti-government protests “was designed to defy and put shame to Raila’s aborted liberation. Fearing that any political leader would mislead them, they said they had to devise a way of doing it for themselves,” the novel explains the genesis of the youth led anti-government protests.

Although Matanga suffers a gunshot would which almost kills him, the story ends on a positive note after he marries his girlfriend who had been seeing Kipruto, a rich boyfriend on the sidelines for survival. The story contends that this is the stereotypical mistrust between the Kalenjin and Kikuyu communities.

A treatise to Kenya’s political psyche, Dr Maillu’s latest novel is an attempt at crystalising the triggers of the unending protests which have rocked successive governments rather than being a sounding board to the chants and hashtags which characterise such protests.

Although the dust caused by the anti-government protests may have settled in the wake of intense crackdown on the protestors and their sympathisers by the government, Dr Maillu’s novel is a veiled warning that the protests are far from over and that indeed they are set to intensify in future unless the government addresses certain issues conclusively.

The highlight of the novel is a set of 24 points dubbed Gen Z demands for social revolution which, according to the author, led the youth to pour to the streets and on social media to protest against President Ruto’s administration. They range from the high cost of living, historical land injustices, joblessness, opulence, tribalism, corruption and impunity and lack of accountability.

“All civil servants, including the President, should seek treatment only from the national hospital instead of seeking it from private hospitals which have been part and parcel of the corruption. Any civil servants who seeks treatment from private hospitals should, therefore, pay his treatment bills,” reads one of the demands. Addressing these grievances conclusively lies the answer stemming anti-government protests.

A dominant theme in Dr Maillu’s novel is neo-colonialism. The book links some of the problems fuelling protests in Kenya to a continued grip of the country by developed countries.

“…The rains started beating us when we dropped our traditional social order because we failed to Africanise the governing structure. We bought the monster capitalism. The structure governing us today doesn’t produce progress anywhere in Africa.

It only prepares is for the return of our traditional colonial masters. The White man is returning to Africa fully pledged for another scramble for Africa using institutions like World Bank, IMF. For our economic enemy to acquire Africa fully he must disorganise our culture,” Matanga’s friend Mike says in one of their conversations…CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ARTICLES>>>