Kenya’s president is bad news for Kenya and Africa

How to tell a genuine protester from a hired goon? The answer matters in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital. On June 25th young Kenyans took to the streets to mark the first anniversary of what have become known as the “Gen-Z protests”. Initially, they peacefully expressed their anger at William Ruto, the country’s president. But by the end of the day much of downtown Nairobi was ablaze. Shop fronts were torn down and windows smashed. At least ten buildings were torched. Peter Ndengwa Mutula, a local tyre trader, says he suffered property damage worth 200,000 shillings ($1,546). Though he cannot be sure who was responsible, he believes the government deliberately “inserted itself inside the protests” in order to incite violence. The resulting chaos, he adds, was “a prophetic sign of the end times”.