What we have witnessed in Kenya the last two weeks has been nothing short of revolutionary and history in the making. A movement led entirely by the youth of the country managed to turn the country upside down and shake off all the bad parts. Their collective voices sent a chill down the President’s spine and a spark of insurgence throughout the globe.
Every youth in the world has had their eyes on Kenya the last couple of weeks. Why? Because we are all in the same boat. It doesn't matter whether it is the East or the West, North or South. Ever since Independence, most of our countries were made to believe that democracy ruled with every vote counted. Our leaders rely on us to get the vote and get into public offices, but for years now, they believe that is where their loyalty to us ends.
Elected officials have a tendency to become ‘unreachable’ to the very constituents who put them in office once they achieve their goal. They have a misconstrued version of reality. They take votes as a popularity contest and not a vote of trust to be a representative of the people. Once elected officials enter public office, their sole purpose should be to represent the voices of the people who put them there, and no one else.
Over the years, our MPs and other elected officials have been using our votes to get themselves a seat at the table and serve their own agendas. The younger generations (Gen Z and millennials) have decided to teach them a lesson they will never forget. Power has and will always reside in the people!
I have loathed for many years how MP(ig)s have stuffed their pockets with illegal tenders and fat allowances beyond our comprehension. Yet at every parliamentary opening, they keep demanding extra pay. Meanwhile, the constituencies they serve have remain dilapidated and underdeveloped. Who is your boss? Is it the President? The governors? If so, let them vote for you during the next election.
As for the President, the man who wooed the struggling youth with the ‘hustler’ narrative, time has come for you to reap what you sow. You cannot mobilise the struggling yet impose sanctions to make their lives even harder. You took advantage of their hope for a better life and got into office by their will. Now it is their will to get you out of office. Will you oblige?
Never in the history of our country have the people banded together like they have today. In the former years, they used tribes, religions and provinces to divide us. Yet today, the people of Kenya have risen as one with just a single common denominator: their evident dislike for you! I bet if we ran an approval rating survey, President Ruto would rank lower than former President Moi.
The revolution cost the people of Kenya more than we can justify. We lost the innocent lives of young people who had their whole lives ahead of them. We robbed mothers of their children. We robbed friends of their comrades and we robbed the future of its potential leaders.
As I looked at the posters of the dead lying on the streets, shot down like unwanted stray animals, I recalled a story I learnt in literature class 18 years ago. In a similar setting of fighting for freedom, Ken Saro Wiwa wrote about Africa killing her sons.
Ken himself was hanged for being a revolutionist in Nigeria in the mid-90s. Yet 30 years after his death, we are still killing our children for standing up against oppressive regimes. These children who are the hope for tomorrow’s future. These young people who want nothing but a bright future for themselves, are laid to rest long before their time.
The prophetic words of Ken Saro Wiwa have been echoing in my head all week. Africa Kills Her Sun. No wonder she had been described as the Dark Continent.