15-07-2024: The East African nation of Kenya was rocked by deadly protests mainly composed of youth during June, ostensibly in response to the Kenyan parliament’s Finance Bill 2024. By the end of the month around 30 protestors had lost their lives, despite forcing the government to withdraw the Bill, which contained some $2.7 billion in tax hikes.[1] The protests were mainly composed of “Gen Z” youth (those born during the late 90s and early 2000s) which gives the impression of young people fighting for their future. Kenya has a population of some 50 million, with 5 million inhabiting the capital Nairobi, and 4 million in the city of Mombasa on the shores of the Indian Ocean. Those aged between 15 and 29 make up roughly 30% of the population,[2] meaning such protests can draw in larger number than is generally the case in the ageing populations of the West. In the wake of the violence, Uasin Gishu Governor Jonathan Bii urged the Gen Z protestors to give dialogue with President William Ruto a chance. Despite goons and looters infiltrating the protests and causing mayhem, Bii conceded that the protestors have genuine issues that need to be addressed.[3]
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Auma Obama has served as a member or board member of nearly a dozen humanitarian organizations aside from her own. She has been a member of the World Future Council, a group that works to spread the word about effective environmental policies and ideas, since 2014. She is a member of the governing council of the Kilimanjaro Initiative in Nairobi, a group that works to allow underprivileged youth to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, and is patron of the international Storymoja Festivals in Kenya, a five-day literacy festival that promotes storytelling and works to promote reading and writing in Africa. She also serves as a board member of the Stiftung Lesen, or German Reading Foundation, another literacy promotion program, and is a member of the advisory board of the Bayreuth Academy of Advanced African Studies at the University of Bayreuth, her alma mater in Germany.
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