Ep41: Don’t fall in love with your tactics with Njoki Gachanja

What happens when a movement falls in love with one tactic?
In this episode, we visit Githurai Social Justice Centre to explore how Kenyan organisers can move beyond protest fatigue and rethink the power of people-centred strategies.

Njoki Gachanja is a community organizer, political and social justice activist, and community lawyer. She coordinates the Githurai Social Justice Centre, where she works with youth, artists, and local networks to build people power from the ground up. Njoki walks us through why mandamano became so central, what its limits are, and what it will take to build fresh, effective, and unified tactics for today’s Kenya.

Key Ideas and Highlights

1. Anger fuels action, but anger is not a strategy. Effective organizing requires clarity, love, unity and the courage to imagine alternatives, not only resistance.
   
   
2. Kenya’s most powerful organizing spaces are not always the streets. Churches, football pitches, TikTok, markets, and clubs already gather thousands and can be transformed into political education spaces.
   
   
3. We win when our currency is truth. In the digital age, political clarity, fact checking, and fidelity to the people are essential for resisting misinformation and building sustainable movements.
   
   

Licensing

Anyone can use this podcast for free, with attribution to Trouble Makers (the podcast). It is held under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License and can be used for radio or any other media. Our podcast is inspired by the Beautiful Trouble toolbox.

Resources and Show Links

• Githurai Social Justice Center (Facebook, X)
• Beautiful Trouble toolbox

Credits

Host:Monica Kamandau
Guest: Njoki Gachanja
Production: Rodgers George
Music: Beautiful Trouble and Mwaduga Salum