On the 20th day of October 2021 which was the anniversary of the Soro Soke movement (aka the EndSARS protest), I wrote something prophetic about the movement which was witnessed in Nigeria thus:
“the EndSARS is a harbinger or a catalyst to future revolts…”
I had made the above prediction not because I had any divine or spiritual revelation that the Soro Soke movement would birth future revolts in Africa but because of my understanding of the contagious nature of revolution which, from its checkered history, has always outlived the time and place where it occurred and emboldened other oppressed people in other climes into standing up to their oppressors.
Not up to four years after the Nigerian government managed to quench the Soro Soke uprisings, a movement of a similar coloration appears to have reared its head in Kenya. The ongoing mass protest in Kenya (hashtagged #RejectFinanceBill2024) which is staged by Kenyan citizens against their government’s plan to increase taxes substantially mirrors the Soro Soke movement which was witnessed in Nigeria sometime in October 2020.
To start with, both are and were mass protests organized by aggrieved citizens against specific tools deployed by their respective states to oppress them or to inflict hardship on them. While the Soro Soke movement was staged by Nigerians against the abusive and extortionist antics of an infamous police unit called the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Kenya’s RejectFinanceBill2024 protest is an uprising by the people of Kenya against another tool of state oppression – harsh taxation.
Also, both revolutions are and were fueled or escalated by fierce online campaigns which reawakened the consciousness of the Kenyan and Nigerian people into realizing the level of systemic rot in their respective countries and which triggered them into trooping to the streets en masse to register their grievances against some of the injustices meted on them by their governments.
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Another striking similarity between the two movements is the fact that both were and are youth-led movements. Majority of the protesters who championed both movements belong to the Gen-Z generation, a generation of young people known for their uncommon courage and ability to take the bull by the horns.
Also resembling is the manner both movements moved from the specific state injustice which triggered them into becoming metaphors or generic terms for all revolts against oppression, corruption, injustice or abuse of power suffered by the people in the hands of their governments.
Equally similar in the two historic movements are measures adopted by the governments of both countries to quell the protests. In adopting the template used by former President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria in dealing with the Soro Soke movement, President William Ruto of Kenya unleashed a combined battalion of the army and police armed with guns, tear gas and water cannons to crack down on the protesters. Africanews quoted the chairperson of the Kenya National Human Rights Commission, Roseline Odede, as having stated that at least 22 protesters have been killed, about 300 injured, and about 50 people were arrested.
Also worthy of mention is the fact that the achievements recorded by both movements are similar. While the Nigerian government was forced to disband the SARS as a result of the Soro Soke movement, President William Ruto of Kenya has been compelled to withdraw the Finance Bill and to retreat on his plan to raise $2.7 billion from tax revenues.
