Kivutha Kibwana: You can’t dialogue with youth while killing them
By Cy Muganda, July 7, 2025Former Makueni Governor Prof Kivutha Kibwana has strongly condemned the ongoing violence against young demonstrators, asserting that meaningful dialogue cannot take place while protesters are being killed by security forces.
Speaking on a local television station on July 7, 2025, Kibwana expressed deep sorrow over the deaths of at least ten protesters during the Saba Saba demonstrations, noting that many Kenyans are saddened by the violent response to constitutionally protected demonstrations.
“Many, many, many Kenyans are really saddened by what is happening in our country. I’m saddened myself. In terms of this idea of young people being killed, you know when there are the demonstrations, which are allowed by the constitution,” Kibwana remarked.
He argued that it is disingenuous for leaders to speak of initiating dialogue with the youth while simultaneously meting out violence against them.
This response, he warned, does not bode well for our country.
“You can’t have dialogue when you’re killing them. You have to stop doing that so that they can even begin to reflect, is this what they want, you know, to happen? And who is going to be involved in it?” he stated.
Use of goons
He cautioned that the presence of goons during protests, whom he described as “misdirected youth,” was a deliberate strategy to delegitimise the demos by creating chaos and blaming it on demonstrators.
“They are called goons, although I still want to call them alternative youth because they also misdirected youth who are being told you can go there, destroy property, do all those things. So that it appears as if it’s the demonstrators who are doing this,” Kibwana explained.
He emphasised that the current generation of protesters will not simply disappear, making it imperative for the government to find alternative solutions.
“I do not think these young people are going to just go away. And that is why there has to be a solution, first of all, for the government, for the state, for the leader of this country to find an alternative way of dealing with this situation,” he added.
Call for reforms
Kibwana reiterated the long-standing need for police reform, citing past efforts such as the Kriegler Report, the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI), and the National Dialogue Conference (NADCO), all of which highlighted the urgent need for a professional and accountable police service.
Drawing parallels to the 2007-2008 post-election violence, Kibwana predicted that dialogue would eventually become “inescapable,” but questioned who the youth would trust to facilitate such discussions.
“But we know, like in 2007-8, there was a dialogue. And now, again, at the end, people will have to talk. But I can’t say now who would be believed by these young people so that the system itself is able to stop this madness and apologise, and to say to the entire country that we must now talk,” he stated.
“Because if we continue this way, we are not going to have a country anymore. They’re already talking about Nane Nane, Tisa Tisa, Kumi Kumi… Will we survive all this if we don’t have our senses?” he added.