By Nyanza Wire 
Rigathi Gachagua’s post-June 25 statement thanking “my dear sons and daughters, the Gen Zs” for heeding his plea to stay off the streets was not leadership. It was a desperate attempt to insert himself into a moment that has consistently rejected political ownership.
Speaking from his Wamunyoro home on June 23, Gachagua warned of an elaborate government plot to infiltrate the commemorations with state-sponsored goons, cause chaos, and then blame the opposition. He urged young people to stay home, asked businesses to close, and framed the day as a potential bloodbath. After the demonstrations passed with minimal violence in most areas, he quickly claimed credit, declaring that the restraint was “a vote of no confidence in this regime” and proof that his advice had saved lives.
The reaction from the very young people he claims to have protected was swift and dismissive.
Across social media, Gen Z voices rejected the narrative outright. Many pointed out that they stayed home not because of Gachagua, but because there was simply no organised movement left with the same energy as 2024. Others were more direct: they are not his “sons and daughters,” and they will not allow a politician who sat in government when their colleagues were killed and abducted in 2024 to now position himself as their guardian.
This is the same Rigathi Gachagua who, as Deputy President, told protesters they should not expect to be “kissed by police” on the streets. He defended security operations, attacked human rights groups highlighting police excesses, and insisted that security was not negotiable. The sudden conversion into a protector of young lives is too convenient to be credible.
June 25 was meant to be a day of remembrance for those who died and were abducted not a platform for a constitutionally barred politician to manufacture relevance. By claiming parental authority over a generation that has repeatedly said it wants nothing to do with old-guard politics, Gachagua has once again exposed the emptiness of his post-impeachment project.
The youth have made their position clear: they do not take orders from Wamunyoro. And they will not let a man who once defended the very machine that brutalised them rewrite history to suit his 2027 ambitions.