Kenya: A Battle For Gen Z

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 16 September 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Over the past year, Kenya has been rocked by anti-government protests. What started as a demonstration over proposed tax increases soon turned into a nationwide, youth-led protest over the state of the economy, alleged political corruption and police brutality. But it's come at a cost. Dozens of protestors have been killed in clashes with the police, and human rights groups say many activists have been abducted and tortured by agents of the states. Michael Kaloki meets the young Kenyans who are caught in a battle for change.

This episode of The Documentary comes to you from Assignment, investigations and journeys into the heart of global events.

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts.
0:09.0	Welcome to the documentary podcast from the BBC World Service.
0:17.2	Personally, I didn't feel like I was at risk.
0:19.6	I was just feeling like I'm doing the right thing, fighting for every Kenyan.
0:25.6	Bailey Mwangi is a slim, young-looking, 25-year-old, former accountancy student.
0:31.6	On Sunday 21 December, 24, he was sitting on a bench outside a barber's shop on a busy street in the heart of the town of Embu, a few hours north of Kenya's capital, Nairobi. That's when they took him.
0:45.5	I saw a pickup white in color with very big wheels. It came straight to where I was, and three men alighted from it
0:56.3	So those three men were armed and muscular
0:59.9	And they came for me
1:01.7	All of them
1:02.7	So they lifted me up and bundled me
1:06.4	In the back of the car
1:08.6	Where I was sandwiched between two heavy body-built men.
1:13.6	So from there I was immediately handcuffed and they turned my t-shirt, blindfolded me,
1:20.6	and commanded me to bend so that I cannot be able to track which way we're actually going or heading to.
1:29.1	But this was no arrest. It was something different.
1:32.8	I remember asking them, why am I being taken? Who are you guys? But they just told me to shut up
1:39.7	and cooperate with whatever they say. No one identified himself.
1:45.6	They drove for hours.
1:47.3	Billy, blindfolded in the back, didn't know where.
1:50.5	It was getting dark because I could hear crickets.
1:53.8	We moved off from Tarmacrode.
	...

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