Tetu MP Geoffrey Wandeto has called on the government to reconsider its planned crackdown on youth dissent on social media, following remarks made by Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen.
In an interview with a Citizen TV station’s breakfast show on Monday, January 13, 2025, Wandeto argued that AI-generated images circulating online represent the youth’s form of silent resistance.
“By 2027, let us brace ourselves for a level of madness that we possibly wouldn’t control,” Wandeto warned. “The more we compete with the youth, the more we motivate them.”
His comments came a day after Murkomen dared the youth to show discipline in social spaces or face arrest.
“If criminals and people of bad behavior have moved from the manual to the digital space, we will follow you there,” Murkomen stated on January 12, 2025. “We will use all available resources to ensure that there is law and order and apprehend criminals.”
However, Wandeto maintained that the government should not take an aggressive stance against the youth. He suggested that the country might end up as one large prison if the government continued on this path.
“It is either we convert the whole country into one large prison, or we take a step back, breathe in and out, and let the youth be. Let us focus on delivering the Kenya Kwanza plan,” Wandeto remarked. “I don’t know how we will manage to create enough space in jails for all the young people who will be arrested and criminalized.”
Wandeto also emphasized that many of the youth targeted by recent actions, including abductions, do not have criminal intentions but are merely expressing their frustrations in a non-confrontational manner.
“Some of these youth are simply having fun, expressing themselves. Very few, if any, have criminal intent. It’s a silent protest—a soft form of resistance,” Wandeto explained.
The comments come after the release of five of six youths who were abducted between December 21-24, 2024, and held for two weeks. Despite claims by the National Police and Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) that they were not involved in the disappearances, President William Ruto assured the public that the government would take action to end the abductions.
Ruto also warned the youth against sharing disturbing images online, labeling it an act of indiscipline that must be curtailed.
