Kenya’s 2024 and 2025 Gen-Z protests were more than episodic moments. As police teargas saturated the air and the screams of protesters echoed through the smoke, there was a “raw, loud and tense” rhythm that had long embodied that resistance, with every music beat headlining itself as a “banner of everyday protest,” explains Javan the Poet.
Javan is an established Kenyan performer from Nairobi’s high-density neighbourhood of Dandora, a musician and poet whose experience with police brutality, socio-economic struggles and police profiling has fuelled his relentless passion for reform. In an interview with Freemuse, he expressed how having grown up alongside the influential hip-hop group Ukoo Flani Mau Mau has shaped his own sound. This sound, he says, has given him a home for free expression, allowing him to “capture lived realities in their rawest form, call out violators as they are and humanise victims, especially of police brutality.” Every vivid recollection of his earlier experiences with police brutality is an anthem of resistance. With memory of how his heart pounded as he and fellow musicians were cornered in an alley and slammed against iron sheet walls by police, when he was still an emerging musician, he penned lyrics that personified his pain, vowing to use them as a protest chant.
Armed with an acute understanding that his profiling in the informal settlements had been rooted in the authorities’ belief that these spaces are a hotbed of criminality in the context of one in five young Kenyans being unemployed, Javan knew there was urgency for his music to revolt against proposed tax hikes. Increased taxes, according to his understanding, would have further plunged young people into not only a situation of increased socio-economic precarity but legitimised their continued profiling.
“During the tax protests, my music became a rallying point for my fans and listeners, giving them both the space and power to speak out boldly. I banked it all on my master poetic piece, Killer Breed, which for the longest time has spoken about police killings that stem from police profiling of young people in informal settlements, youth who are often pushed into crime by lack of livelihood opportunities, a situation only made worse by rising taxes and government neglect.”
New waves of resistance
The suffering emanating from these harsh socio-economic realities, while morphing itself into a new and unique sound of Arbantone and Gengetone, has carried on its shoulders the spirit of resistance pioneered by prominent musicians such as Juliani, the GidiGidi MajiMaji duo and Eric Wainana, Javan further explains.
“Arbantone, derived from the word urban, is an attempt to represent the realities and aspirations of the country’s youth. It is often described as a more polished evolution of Gengetone, with greater emphasis on branding and public image. Rather than focusing heavily on themes such as sex and drugs, Arbantone artists tend to highlight youth lifestyles, social experiences, and urban culture. Musically, this genre combines elements of classic Kenyan genge sounds with Jamaican riddims, creating a distinctly contemporary Kenyan urban sound.”
While these urban beats reverberate, activating the hopes and aspirations of Gen-Z movements, Javan and his fellow musicians grapple with constant surveillance, fearing that they would be the next targets of abductions, intimidation and charges of terrorism, as experienced by other artists, for daring to speak creatively. Their resolve remains clear and sacrificial. Their “struggle is not just personal but a part of a wider fight for artistic freedom and basic human dignity.”
Listen to the artist’s music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Hff78Pd7XQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uBgbg5EIHc
https://www.instagram.com/javan_thepoet
https://www.linkedin.com/in/javan-the-poet-8a91071ab
By Lisa Sidambe, Freemuse’s Sub-Saharan Africa researcher.
