Gen Z is tired, loud and global: New report shows Kenya among 10 countries rocked by large-scale youth protests

It turns out Kenya’s Gen Z isn’t just making noise online. They’re part of a global wave that’s shaking governments, timelines and the patience of politicians everywhere. A new Statista report, based on research by Visions of Humanity, shows that in just 2024 and 2025 alone, 10 countries experienced large-scale protests led primarily by young people. Kenya appears right alongside Bangladesh, Nepal, Morocco, Madagascar, Peru, the Philippines, Indonesia, Timor-Leste and Serbia.

What’s striking is how similar the frustrations are across countries. Whether it’s Nairobi or Dhaka, Casablanca or Kathmandu, young people are responding to the same tired mix of corruption, economic exclusion, political arrogance and terrible decision-making. But unlike previous generations, this one doesn’t wait for permission or for newspapers to write history. They have smartphones, VPNs, TikTok, Telegram, Discord and a sense of humour sharp enough to slice through government PR.

Take Madagascar. Just this week, President Andry Rajoelina dissolved his own government after protests turned deadly. Twenty-two people lost their lives and more than a hundred were injured after anger over water and electricity failures spun into unrest. The report notes that the protests were youth-led, amplified through social media and fuelled by frustration with basic services being treated like luxuries.

Bangladesh tells an even wilder story. In mid-2024, young people mobilised against a quota system that gave government jobs based on religious and other identity categories. The state responded with violence, and estimates suggest more than a thousand people died. That didn’t stop the movement. Instead, long-time Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country. It’s one of the clearest examples of what happens when Gen Z decides they’re done negotiating with dysfunctional leadership.

Then there’s Nepal. In early September, anger over the opulent lifestyles of political elites and their “nepo kids” who show off inherited wealth online sparked massive demonstrations that left more than 70 people dead and ultimately forced the prime minister to resign. As we covered recently, this isn’t a generation that stops at protest; Nepali youth literally turned to Discord to craft their own political structure and plan a replacement government.

Asia, in general, has been a pressure cooker. In the last two months alone, protests in Indonesia and the Philippines erupted over corruption, rising living costs and perks handed out to members of parliament. In both cases, officials’ homes and government buildings became the physical outlets of digital rage.

Africa and beyond haven’t been spared either. Morocco has seen growing youth activism under collectives like GenZ 212, which has been calling out unemployment, poor access to education and healthcare, and a government that treats political reform like a suggestion box. Peru and Serbia have had their share of unrest too, as young people push back against bad governance and broken promises.

And then there’s Kenya, very much in the thick of it. If you’ve followed Techish Kenya for a while, nothing about this moment should surprise you. We’ve tracked how young Kenyans have organised online and offline, first calling out corporate irresponsibility in cases like Safaricom’s role in Albert Ojwang’s case, then pushing back against internet restrictions, and repeatedly exposing the Communications Authority’s obsession with controlling platforms like Telegram. We’ve also written about how the government keeps buying surveillance tools like party favours, how the CA and telcos work overtime to monitor speech, and how digital rights have been steadily eroded, as highlighted in the Londa Report 2025.

And yet, with every shutdown threat, misinformation campaign or condescending press address, young people just find new ways to regroup. The internet goes down? They switch to offline mesh apps. A platform is monitored? They move to another. TV ignores them? They livestream their own reality. Even corporates have been caught off-guard, forced to respond to backlash from a generation that doesn’t do silent outrage.

It’s clear that Gen Z is not just reacting. They’re inventing a new kind of protest playbook. The phone has become the placard and the podium, the meeting hall and the megaphone. When we said in our podcast discussing the role of tech in protests that digital infrastructure is now political infrastructure, this is what we meant.

Governments love to dismiss youth activism as online noise, until that noise spills into the streets, trends for days and turns into policy U-turns or, in extreme cases, collapses entire administrations. Statista’s findings don’t introduce a new phenomenon. They simply confirm what has been unfolding across timelines, streets and statehouses: this generation is not waiting for change. It’s enforcing it.

And yes, some leaders will keep trying to fight hashtags, ban channels, police memes and buy spyware. But the protests of 2024 and 2025 show something bigger. Gen Z is not just alright. They’re organised, angry, funny, global and increasingly impossible to ignore.

If the old guard is still wondering whether young citizens are serious, Statista just handed them a world map with the answer.