Kenyan Gen-Z activists are trying their utmost to support protestors in neighboring Tanzania. But how much can they actually achieve in the face of mounting government repression and digital blackouts?
Normally, the Namanga One-Stop Border Post is a place of commerce, a busy artery connecting the ports of Mombasa, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. But in the days following the recent disputed election in Tanzania, it became the flashpoint of a regional democratic crisis.
As protests erupted over the exclusion of opposition candidates in the polls amid allegations of vote-rigging, young activists from neighboring Kenya attempted to cross the border — not with goods, but with a message of solidarity.
That attempt, however, led to a violent stand-off: "Police have shot us with tear gas. They have shot the Kenyans across the border. The day has been bad," one Tanzanian youth protesting in the border area said.
At least two Kenyan nationals meanwhile were reported to have died in the ensuing clashes — on top of hundreds of Tanzanian victims.
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