Azimio la Umoja – One Kenya coalition leader Raila Odinga’s lawyer Paul Mwangi has said that it is hypocritical to ignore the demands raised by Generation Z (Gen Zs).
Mwangi through his official X account on Saturday, July 20, 2024, said that he is saddened by the way the older generations talk about the new generation, adding that most of them are parents to Gen Z.
He stated that parenting style has changed drastically stressing that the strategies the previous generation used in parenting can no longer be applied to Gen-Zs.
“WE SHOULD STOP BEING HYPOCRITICAL ABOUT GEN Z DEMANDS. I am finding myself shaking my head in perplexion every day when I hear the older generations, particularly my agemates who are the parents of GEN Z, talk about the new generation,” he said.
“President Ruto is my agemate and is thus a GEN Z parent. So this applies to him too. Firstly, we are talking very tough out here when we don’t talk tough at home. Every parent of GEN Z is negotiating situations at home with their children. We don’t talk to our kids the way our parents talked to us.”
Mwangi further blamed a section of politicians for publicly dismissing Gen Zs demands and cheering the police for interfering with their peaceful protests.
“We don’t have that kind of command over GEN Z. But when out here, I’m hearing politicians roaring like lions against GEN Z in public while I am sure they have been bleating like lambs at home,” Mwangi said.
“Whether your child was on the streets or not is not the definition of their position in this cause they have taken. And some of us are cheering the police along because they believe their child will never be there to be shot.”
Commenting on the Gen-Zs movement, Mwangi said that the young generation is demanding to write the rules of their future and the Kenya they want to live in.
“As parents, we all know you have no control over that. So be careful what you wish for. What we are not seeing in our perception is that these youngsters are talking about their future, not about our present. But that’s what they are doing now. GEN Z is demanding to write the rules about their future; about the Kenya they want to live in; to work in; to marry in; and to bring up their children in,” Mwangi said.
“They are not talking about our lives: they are talking about their life. How can that offend us? Why would that offend us?”
Multiparty demos
Mwangi disclosed that the older generations were the same age as Gen Z during the multiparty democracy protest in 1990.
“The parents of GEN Z were exactly the same age as GEN Z when we took to the streets to demand multiparty democracy. We did not think of ourselves as children. We were not treated as children. So why are we treating this generation as children? They are the same age as we were when we started our own revolution. It’s their time to talk, and our time to listen,” he said.
WE SHOULD STOP BEING HYPOCRITICAL ABOUT GEN Z DEMANDS.
I am finding myself shaking my head in perplexion every day when I hear the older generations, particularly my agemates who are the parents of GEN Z, talk about the new generation. President Ruto is my agemate and is thus a…— Paul Mwangi (@PaulMMwangi) July 20, 2024