The lavish lifestyles of Kenya’s lawmakers, splashed across TikTok and X, with luxury cars, private helicopters, mounds of cash added fuel to anger simmering last month among a young, plugged-in population over proposed tax hikes.
Weeks-long protests about the tax measures have increasingly drawn attention to the large salaries, perks and ostentation of members of parliament (MPs) in a country where three quarters of the population is young and well-paid work is scarce.
Fury boiled over on June 25, when protesters stormed parliament and set it ablaze, pelting fleeing politicians’ vehicles with stones. Since then, private residences and businesses of several MPs, mainly those associated with the ruling coalition, have been attacked.
Now, TikTok and X are being wielded as protest tools. Politicians’ videos are edited and reposted with negative comments. The platforms are awash with allegations of mismanaged funds and discussions on next steps for the as-yet largely leaderless youth movement.
Activists are sharing advice how to use recall powers to topple representatives and have even built an AI-powered chatbot that spits out media reports of corruption allegations when a politician’s name is entered.
In April and May during the build-up to the protests, ruling party MP Zaheer Jhanda posted videos of himself on TikTok admiring his gleaming Range Rover, a Mercedes G Wagon and a Lexus, triggering angry online commentary.
“Why would you show us your lavish lifestyle and still not do your job as a leader?” said artist and activist Rachel Stephanie Akinyi, referring to politicians’ social media posts.
“What are you trying to show us? ‘We have the power to use your money the way we want to, to take care of our own needs.’ But what about us?”, said Akinyi, who goes by the stage name ‘Spontaneous The Poet’.
In a sign of the pressure the protests are keeping on President William Ruto, on Thursday he said that after listening to Kenyans and reflecting, he had dismissed his entire cabinet, opens new tab apart from the foreign minister, with the aim of setting up a new “broad-based government.”
Last week, Ruto, 57, said some officials displayed “obnoxious opulence.” He announced austerity measures including cuts to his own offices budget and ordered a review of pay rises MPs and other officials had been due to receive in July.
Didmus Barasa, the ruling party MP for Kimilili in Western Kenya, told Reuters the protesters had valid concerns about what he called the “insensitivities” of the government’s handling of economic development. He did not give further details.
Barasa denied MPs were overpaid.
His personal wealth, including a private helicopter, was a reward for legitimate business activities, he said. Barasa, who is a former soldier and not widely known as a businessman, said he owned a hospital in Turkey.
“Yes, I have a helicopter. I have a helicopter that I purchased,” he said. “I am an inspiration of very many young people in this country.”
Barasa, after being questioned by a senator about the helicopter, previously said in online comments that he could afford it because he chose to maintain only one wife and believed in God.
Caroline Gaita, Executive Director of Mzalendo, an organisation that monitors parliament, said young Kenyans previously disinterested in politics are re-engaging, aware of the impact legislation has on their daily lives and demanding lawmakers listen to them.
Calling the protests an “awakening of Gen Z,” Tom Mboya, an expert on politics and corruption in Kenya, said there was a perception that politicians were rarely, if ever, held to account since Ruto took office in 2022.
“They have become bolder in their flashy and opulent lifestyles at a time when Kenyans are being taxed to their limit,” Mboya said of officials and MPs, some of whom have been filmed handing out wads of cash to people in their constituencies.
In 2023, Kenya ranked 126 out of 180 countries in the world by Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index, down three places from 2022.
Ruto’s office did not respond to requests for comment on this story.
