The ‘Redykyulass Generation‘S’ intellectual interventions in Kenyan public life

Abstract

This article is interested in the intellectual contributions of the youth to Kenyan public life. It focuses on what has been called the ‘Redykyulass Generation’ as a contemporary generation of politically engaged youths who have successfully used various genres of popular cultural productions and media platforms to engage with Kenyan social imaginaries. Using three case studies — the Redykyulass group and the writings of Binyavanga Wainaina and Parselelo Kantai — the article examines this generation’s ongoing reconstruction of what constitutes knowledge and its contributions in shaping Kenyan public life, while critically engaging with what can be termed the ‘geronto-masculine’ texture of Kenyan political and intellectual public life. The study suggests that the Redykyulass Generation has variously fractured certain conventions embedded in the socio-political terrains of Kenyan public life, while attaining both social relevance and popularity in Kenyan social imaginaries.