In any conflict resolution process, those affected must be seated at the table. That’s a basic principle. Yet Citizen TV chose to ignore this during their June 30, 2025 broadcast on the Gen Z protests.
Just days after the June 25 demonstrations, where property was destroyed and lives lost, the station aired a report titled “Government officials want law on protests amended to curb youth uprising.”
And who was invited to dissect this deeply generational and emotionally charged issue? Four men: Former LSK president Nelson Havi, MP Dido Rasso, former police spokesman Charles Owino, and Senator Joe Nyutu. Not one Gen Z voice. Not a one woman.
Since June 2024, Kenyan youth have been raising their voices, not just against taxes, but for a more just and inclusive society. This is bigger than political reform. It’s a call for dignity, transparency, and space to be heard.
That should have shaped the conversation. Citizen TV is not a constitutional office. If this were strictly about legal reform, let the debate stay in Parliament. But once it hits national television, representation isn’t optional, it’s mandatory. And gender, in this case, wasn’t neutral. It was invisible.
The truth is, policy doesn’t impact everyone the same way. Women and gender minorities experience protest policing, civic exclusion, and economic marginalisation differently.
Their voices deserved space, especially given that during the June 25 protests, reports indicate some women and girls suffered sexual violence. Yet the panel carried on as if gender wasn’t even part of the equation. That’s not just oversight. That’s erasure.
As a national broadcaster, Citizen TV has a duty to host inclusive, diverse, and representative dialogues. All-male panels on matters of national urgency betray that mission. Media houses can’t claim neutrality while reinforcing the very power structures Gen Z is challenging.
If you keep inviting only male experts and officials, you’re not just reporting the news, you’re embodying the problem. As the saying goes, “The medium is the message.”
And the long-term effects? They aren’t theoretical. When young women or gender-diverse individuals don’t see themselves represented, they slowly but surely back away from public spaces, media, and activism.
Because why speak, if no one listens? And when panels lack diversity, they also lack depth. We miss the real stories. We gloss over lived experience. We end up with analysis that’s safe, sanitised, and out of touch.
Many felt this. On June 29, when Citizen TV promoted the show online, Kenyans didn’t stay quiet. Peoples’ Liberation Party leader Martha Karua simply called it what it was: “A manel.” Another user, @wanjaah, cut deeper: “A panel with an average age of 54—and entirely male—will be discussing issues affecting Gen Z, whose average age is just 20.5.”
Citizen TV had the feedback. It had the time. It didn’t change course.
