Saidia jamii foundation

18/10/2025

🕊️ STATEMENT from Saidia Jamii Foundation: Dignity and Life Must Be Protected

​The hearts of the Saidia Jamii Foundation team and community are heavy following the tragic events at Kasarani Stadium during the public viewing of the late PM Raila Amollo Odinga's remains.

​We are deeply disturbed and condemn the use of excessive force by security agencies that led to the reported loss of life and injuries among innocent Kenyans who were simply grieving and seeking to pay their last respects.

​The core mission of the Saidia Jamii Foundation is to aid the community and protect the well-being and dignity of all people.

We believe every Kenyan has a fundamental right to mourn peacefully and safely. The use of live ammunition to manage a crowd of unarmed civilians, especially during a solemn national event, is a gross violation of this right.

​We call for immediate action:
​Justice for the Fallen: A swift and transparent investigation must be launched to hold all those responsible for the fatal shootings accountable.

​Support for the Injured: We urge medical and psychosocial support for all affected families.
​Restraint & Reform: We demand that the National Police Service immediately adopt and enforce humane, non-lethal crowd control methods.

​Let us honour the memory of the late PM by championing the human rights and peace he stood for. May the bereaved families find strength during this heartbreaking time.

​

01/10/2025

Due to its resilience, the movement recently secured the support of notable figures in the global labor and socialist movements, like former members of the British parliament, *Jeremy Corbyn* and Dave Nellist, for the campaign to free the activists on trial.

*Taking stock and moving forward*

Now more than a year old, the Gen Z movement has served notice to the continent’s ruling classes. “The 2024 protests changed Kenya forever,” Kiama explained. “Kenyans will no longer take it lying down as the political class and the business elite loot the country mercilessly.”

But the Gen Z protests in Nigeria and Kenya have not won any of the far-reaching changes they envisioned. For instance, despite the widespread call for Ruto to quit, he remains firmly in power and even carried out vicious repression against protesters this year. Similarly, in Nigeria, last year’s protests were followed by the intensification of the very same neoliberal reforms the protests were against.

This might give an impression that the protest achieved nothing, but as "Onyango observed, “Movements don’t always win in one round. This was a rupture. Now, the youth are more organized, more radicalized, and less trusting of this elite pact. In that sense, it was not a failure. It was a beginning.”*

Despite facing brutal repression, the wave of youth-led movements in Nigeria and Kenya that exploded last year are remarkably resilience.

22/07/2025