On August 13, Morara Kebaso, an activist, announced on his X account, @MoraraKebasoSnr, his plan to embark on a countrywide tour to investigate President William Ruto’s white elephants projects.

“If you know a project near your area that was launched by the president but it never started or stalled, comment below,” he said on his verified account on the platform.

Barely a week later, State House Spokesman Hussein Mohammed and Media Relations Director Najma Ismail tripped each other up on the same platform as they tried to correct him. As Ismail reposted her boss’ post, she appeared to be accusing him of posting lies and had to delete the post.

Equipped with a camera, means of transport, his X account, and internet access, Morara, a young lawyer, has been making waves with his activism. His appearances on Spice FM’s Situation Room and Citizen TV have not only raised awareness but also put pressure on the State House. 

While there had been reports on social media, then picked up on mainstream media, that some of President Ruto’s projects had been launched or commissioned before or were stalled, the young lawyer’s posts offered audiovisual proof.

There is a road in Nyandarua that has been launched twice by President Ruto and once by retired President Uhuru Kenyatta; a water project in Malava that the EABL Foundation actually developed; a road in Kisii that is still under construction; the infamous stadium in Kamariny, Elgeyo Marakwet, another one in Wote; farming going on at the airstrip in Eldoret; and a plethora of ills that have been evident but not put on the public record in such a manner.

Morara’s approach to gathering information includes analysing the Auditor-General’s and the Controller of Budget’s reports and using the President’s X account to track projects. His combination of document analysis, social media information and his own legwork rivals the work of established media houses and embodies a new approach to public accountability.

In the course of this work, he has discovered that he can imitate the President and tinged his work with some familiar humour, but his work is still serious.

While the protests might have died down, Morara’s work shows the potential in the hands of the genuinely idealistic, whose core rallying call was for better governance and zero impunity by government.

The protestors used the internet to organise and break down the Finance Bill, 2024 for easier consumption. They also used Zello, a mobile walkie-talkie app, to coordinate during the protests. When too many government agents also got on Zello, they left.

Morara’s assertions and counterclaims triggered others to action. When Hussein disputed his assertions about the road in Kisii, another social media user hopped on a bodaboda to check for himself and promptly shared photographs on X.

These actions are essentially similar to what other Kenyans have been trying to do using social media, like posting photos of roads so bad they are deemed fit to grow bananas or the milkman in Embu who lost 184 litres of milk because of a bad road. 

On Monday, residents of Kimalel in Baringo called out the county government for neglecting the local hospital, forcing Governor Benjamin Cheboi to respond. Maina Ndegwa, another X user, also previously posted a thread juxtaposing MPs who had supported the Finance Bill, 2024 against flagged expenditure of Constituency Development Funds in their constituencies.

This new form of activism also underscores the fact that with the democratisation of access to information brought about by rapid advances in technology, traditional media is not the only source of information and agenda-setting for the public. For example, while there had been coverage of the Finance Bill in newspapers and discussions on TV and radio talk shows, the protests increased in volume and impact when Gen Z took to the streets and was then joined by millennials, with educative videos on TikTok and discussions on X Spaces serving to inform more people about the issues. Azimio la Umoja–One Kenya Coalition Party leader Raila Odinga had led protests in 2023, and there had been extensive media coverage of the issues, but never before had the President been forced to drop the Finance Bill and sack his entire Cabinet.  

It is still too early to tell how the public accountability style of Morara will play out. Since the protests started, some of the more vocal young activists have been abducted and tortured by State agents or cynically co-opted; both sets have effectively been silenced. So far, Morara has turned away requests by other users to accompany him on his trips across the country and does not share live updates on his location and situation. What’s certain is that there is a new crop of young adults who are not afraid to walk the talk in expressing their points of view and asking pertinent questions about the actions of the Executive and elected representatives.

This week, when State House put up a graphic of the achievements under President Ruto’s administration with him standing in the middle, Morara put up one detailing the stalled and incomplete but launched projects he has visited.