The 2024 Anti-Finance Bill protests were a defining moment in Kenya’s recent history. Thousands took to the streets, largely without a central leader, political party, or clearly identifiable financial backer. The movement felt organic, decentralized and, for a moment, remarkably unified.

One of the loudest messages from Gen-Z was that they were “tribeless and partyless.” Tribal politics, they argued, belonged to older generations.

But two years on, another form of division appears increasingly visible: class.

The generation that challenged tribal identities may also be becoming increasingly conscious and sometimes dismissive of socioeconomic differences within its own ranks.

This is happening against a backdrop of unprecedented digital access to wealth creation. Social media has created influencers, entrepreneurs and new forms of income. Mobile technology has made earning, spending and displaying wealth easier and more visible. From cars to lifestyle content, prosperity is increasingly something that can be publicly performed.

Even during the protests, politicians attempted to frame Gen-Z protesters as financially comfortable enough to Uber to demonstrations, eat at KFC and return to Airbnbs.

Whether those claims accurately represented the protesters is another question. But the stereotype reveals something worth examining: who gets to participate in the new Kenyan economy, and who gets left behind?

Perhaps the more uncomfortable question is not whether Gen-Z is “classless,” but whether a generation that rejected tribal boundaries is now drawing new boundaries around money, lifestyle and social status.

Has Kenya’s generation of “tribeless” youth simply found a new way to divide itself

APERIT FM, HII NI YETU