Nobody knew Generation Z could occupy newspaper headlines until their rapturous anti-government protests that forever changed the course of Kenya’s politics.
Nixon Nyadiero Sekoh wasn’t surprised by these events because he had studied deeply about a generation considered rebellious, and even went ahead to write a book on how to connect with them.
His book, “The Gen Z Parent: From Confusion to Connection” offers fresh entry into ideas on how to connect to Generation Z, who are currently the talk of governance spaces and even in the frontiers of parenting and workspaces.
Sekoh’s book stands out as a manual that will enable every parent to understand generational battles and issues that cripple the mindset of a young person.
He suggests three perspectives in handling the Generation Z; a candid focus on where the young people are coming from, where they are going and the world that they live in.
"The Gen Z Parent: From Confusion to Connection'' by Nixon Nyadiero Sekoh, pictured on August 28, 2025.
Photo credit: Wilfred Nyangaresi | Nation Media Group
Despite the book solving bigger societal challenges that other generations have with Generation Z, like in politics and governance, Sekoh chooses to view solving the deterioration of the relationship between Generation Z and the status quo through his writing on parenting.
“In light of the foregoing, most of us tend to learn the hard way insofar as parenting Gen Z and Gen Alpha is concerned. Albeit gradually, we realize issuing marching orders often amounts to nothing but an exercise in futility,” Sekoh notes in the book’s introduction.
The 10-chapter book is easy to navigate as it tackles each aspect of connection with Gen Zs with precision. For instance, in the Chapter titled, “ Background Factor and a Parent’s Excesses,” Sekoh recounts how his father passed away when he was 17 years old.
He narrates the experience as excruciatingly painful and devastating. He advises in the chapter that parenting demands that we be deliberate and intentional.
Public speaker Nixon Nyadiero Sekoh, the author of "The Gen Z Parent: From Confusion to Connection, during an interview in Nairobi on August 28, 2025.
Photo credit: Wilfred Nyangaresi | Nation Media Group
In his view, the way we were raised has the capacity to replicate in the way we raise our children unless we are very alert to ensure that negative patterns and trends do not manifest as we go about our parenting endeavours.
To those who are married, Sekoh cautions that a man’s relationship with his wife is crucial if he’s looking for a cordial relationship with his children.
“I lost some grounds in my relationship with my children every time I permitted them to witness any form of antagonism in the way I related with their mother,” admits Sekoh.
The author’s love for mentorship is easy to note in his work. When writing about networks and net worths, he encourages the younger generation to unrelentingly pursue their passion every time he holds talks with them. He equally in such talks insists on the need to nurture their networks in pursuit of their dreams.
Perhaps his biggest and most significant chapter is about the art of listening, which, according to him, is lacking in many people, including the government today.
He remembers the events of June 2024 protests against the Finance Bill that led to the torching of Parliament.
He narrates that there are hard lessons that parents and those in power together ought to learn from the episode. “It is sad to own up to the fact that failure to listen to our children could easily plunge us into a worse situation than what we witnessed in June and July 2024.”
Sekoh talks too about character, values and the age of technology.
He notes here that there is more to life than providing for your children and facilitating a comfortable lifestyle. Ensuring all the needs of your children are met is commendable but this is not all there is in life.
He cautions that while we cannot run away from technological emancipation, it is important to employ certain restrictions in view of what your child consumes on the internet, depending on age. He cautions parents not to leave their children to their own devices.” Handhold them and help them to safely navigate the murky waters of technology.
Unrestricted access is the reason so many children got hooked on pornographic addictions that are literally devouring their lives.
Such regrettable situations could be avoided if children are hand-held, mentored and instructed in a manner that steers them off these vices.”
Sekoh also explores the subjects of drugs and substance abuse, and dealing with addictions. In the chapter that exhaustively deals with sex and sexuality, he comfortably confronts a topic most parents are shy to discuss with their youthful children. He wonders how society has reached a place where sex as a topic has become a taboo that cannot be discussed between parents and children.
Because of the existence of a vacuum, Sekoh reveals that children have been left to their own devices, often soliciting such information from very suspect sources.
Here, he urges parents that it is time we went back to the basics by having them indulge their children in matters pertaining to sex and sexuality as early as ten years of age.
“They ought to be taught, point blank, on all the dangers of premarital sex and why they must abstain. They must be taught that purity is priceless and why it must be treasured.”
Sekoh unsurprisingly draws most of his lessons and observations from the Bible and his own real-life experiences, hence making reading the book not only exciting but confounding and timely.
The writer’s decision to pen the book is not a surprise to people who have interacted with his mentorship passion, which is grounded in a strong belief in good morals.
He is the founding chairman of Africa’s Promise, an international NGO focused on empowering the youth. He is a public speaker, mentor, and serves on the boards of multiple organisations.
The book is currently available at Amazon and Nuria Bookstore. It retails at Sh1,299.
