Political Ringside

Angel Mbuthia: "Election Day we know we are removing Ruto—but we also need to know how to get into office."

Ruto calling for Uhuru's exit is not a governance position. It is a constitutional violation. Every Kenyan, including former presidents, has the right to participate in the political process as enshrined in the 2010 Constitution.

A constitution, Angel notes, that Ruto vehemently opposed and voted no to. He does not embrace it. And that is precisely why he feels comfortable denying others the rights it protects.

"Every time Uhuru Kenyatta stands up to speak, William Ruto is typing and deleting. He gets cold sweats because Uhuru knows him — as much as Rigathi Gachagua does." - Angel Mbuthia

"Vijana wa Kenya wanakwangwa wamejituma. It is just that we are being let down by a regime that has no faith in us, by a regime that sees us as arsonists and terrorists, because I can confirm to you that William Ruto has never mentioned the term Gen Z since he was born." - Angel Mbuthia

The proposal to host a quarantine centre for Ebola patients in Nairobi has been framed by its proponents as a marketing opportunity for Kenya, a chance to position the country on the global health stage.

Angel Mbuthia frames it differently as a government that cannot feed its own hospital patients, cannot provide dialysis, and cannot deliver cancer treatment, now volunteering to manage one of the most lethal and least forgiving pathogens on earth.

Angel Mbuthia on Political Ringside says that nobody is coming to save us. That is the core of it. Not a politician, not a coalition, not a movement with a compelling name and a viral hashtag.

The people who hold the keys to this nation are the people watching this screen, and the only question that matters between now and August 12th, 2027, is whether they are willing to act like it.

The 2024 protests left wounds that have not closed, and Angel Mbuthia is not pretending otherwise.

But she is also identifying something that happened inside those wounds that most people have not stopped long enough to notice a shift in the relationship between generations that may turn out to be the most consequential outcome of the entire movement.

Angel Mbuthia: "They have gone from worse to worst. The tone Is More Dreadful than it was before the protests."
If the 2024 protests were supposed to be a wake-up call, this government hit snooze.

Angel Mbuthia's assessment of what has changed since young Kenyans took to the streets is delivered without hesitation: they have gone from worse to worse, the tone has become more dreadful, and the cabinet reshuffle that followed the protests did not include a single young person in any meaningful position.

The message sent to the generation that shook the country was that their disruption had been noted and their inclusion had not.

Angel Mbuthia: "He has already traumatized young people into fear, but the resilience is still there."

The question of whether Kenyans will return to the streets if the Finance Bill 2026 sails through is not as simple as it sounds, and Angel Mbuthia answers it with a honesty that cuts through the bravado on both sides of the debate.

Angel Mbuthia: "The Finance Bill Is traumatizing to young people; it awakens the shattering memories of 2024."

In this episode of Political Ringside, Angel Mbuthia speaks for a generation that carries both grief and rage every time the Finance Bill is mentioned, and her words land with the full weight of what that document now represents.

Over 100 young people were killed during the 2024 protests. The Human Rights Commission puts the number closer to 200. Others disappeared. And the government continues to deny the full count. June 25th is now a day of remembrance — not just protest — for Kenya's Gen Z.