Kenya’s biggest protest in recent history played out on a walkie-talkie app

Betty had never heard of the Zello app until June 18.

But as she participated in Kenya’s “ GenZ protests ” that month — one of the biggest in the country’s history — the app became her savior.

On Zello, “we were getting updates and also updating others on where the tear-gas canisters were being lobbed and which streets had been cordoned off,” Betty, 27, told Rest of World , requesting to be identified by a pseudonym as she feared backlash from the police. “At one point, I also alerted the group [about] suspected undercover investigative officers who were wearing balaclavas.”

Nairobi witnessed massive protests in June as thousands of young Kenyans came out on the streets against a proposed bill that would increase taxes on staple foods and other essential goods and services. At least 39 people were killed, 361 were injured, and more than 335 were arrested by the police during the protests, according to human rights groups .

Amid the mayhem, Zello, an app developed by U.S. engineer Alexey Gavrilov in 2007, became the primary tool for protestors to communicate, mobilize crowds, and coordinate logistics. Six protesters told Rest of World that Zello, which allows smartphones to be used as walkie-talkies, helped them find meeting points, evade the police, and alert each other to potential dangers.

Digital services experts and political analysts said the app helped the protests become one of the most effective in the country’s history.

According to Herman Manyora, a political analyst and lecturer at the University of Nairobi, mobilization had always been the greatest challenge in organizing previous protests in Kenya. The ability to turn their “phones into walkie-talkies” made the difference for protesters, he told Rest of World .

“The government realized that the young people were able to navigate technological challenges. You switch off one app, such as [X], they move to another,” Manyora said.

Zello was downloaded over 40,000 times on the Google Play store in Kenya between June 17 and June 25, according to data from the company. This was “well above our usual numbers,” a company spokesperson told Rest of World . Zello did not respond to additional requests for comment.

It was the third most-downloaded app on Apple’s App Store in Kenya from June 19–24, according to data from analytics firm Sensor Tower. On the Google Play store, it was the fourth most-downloaded communications app on June 25, up from 45th position just 24 hours earlier.

Zello was largely unknown in Kenya until the protests broke out, but it gained such popularity that on July 2, President William Ruto acknowledged its role in the events.

“Many of the peaceful protesters, well-meaning young people, left town by mid-morning [on June 25 during the protests]. In fact, you could hear them on their Zello, rallying each other to leave town,” Ruto said during a roundtable with local journalists.

“None of us saw this coming,” Moses Kemibaro, CEO of Nairobi-based digital strategy firm Dotsavvy Africa, told Rest of World . “In this instance, however, what we saw was unprecedented in terms of the scale … The young people are able to use technology in a way the older generation did not anticipate.”

Zello has been used during emergencies, disaster management, and protests in several parts of the world. In 2014, the app featured prominently in Venezuela’s anti-government demonstrations, allowing people to communicate anonymously . In 2017, rescuers used Zello to find and save at-risk people in the eye of a hurricane in Texas.

The same year, protesters in Canada used it to organize blockades , while the Russian government blocked Zello after a group of truckers used it to organize a three-week strike.

Kenyan protesters “needed to move and coordinate things quickly and that’s exactly why they used the app,” Kemibaro said. “It is better than WhatsApp groups because it is instant. The app is mostly used in logistics but in this instance, it was used in something completely different.”

Mercy, a 21-year-old university graduate, planned to join a group of protesters marching to the Parliament building in Nairobi on June 25. She told Rest of World she received warnings on Zello to turn back because policemen were shooting at protesters. Reports later confirmed that a group of protesters set a portion of the building on fire.

“Every time police officers lobbed tear-gas at protesters, we would go in different directions, losing sight of our friends during the protests,” said Mercy, requesting to be identified by a pseudonym as she feared police intimidation. “A group we had created on Zello helped us locate each other.”

Zello downloads have declined since the first week of the protests. Kemibaro said the app’s usage in Kenya will further taper off as the protests die down. “Zello was the right product, the right platform, at the right time and scenario. I don’t know if it has the longevity to go beyond that,” he said. ▰

Stephanie Wangari is a journalist based in Nairobi, Kenya.