19 June
“Yawne yo”, the Gen Z are in town, have made their presence known! For decades, the political class has looked at the youth with a frown, let them down with ringtones, free laptops, jobs, kazi kwa vijana & youth at the top. Yes, “they told us ‘things will be better’, they told us ‘things will be cheaper’; they told us ‘things will be easier”. Of the false promises thrown, Burning Spear would sing in ‘Not Stupid’.
For decades, Kenya’s rogue governance – “system ya majambazi” has fully grown cartels that year in and out, drown in brown envelopes of budgeted corruption. For 2024, the “greedy greedy oh” (Nameless) pawns of IMF have set aside billions to pay for travel, obscene allowances, obese offices & stately houses. They’ve the temerity to chop off allocations for food, water, health and job creation. Audacity?
Yawne yo! The “Niko tayari” generation is in town, making their active presence known – against clowns of the “crown”. In her twitter (X) handle, Njeri Thorne is effusive: “this is the first time in our history, protestors are more informed than the leadership”. Prof. Kivutha Kibwana is modest, “the most dangerous thing for a government to do is to declare war on the youth”. Is Kenya Kwanza really really listening? Withdraw! the odious finance bill yesterday:-
20 June
“Why! tax sanitary pads? Why not impose taxes on male innerwear?” Hon Millie Mabona said it as is during debate on the “bitter” finance bill, yesterday. Kenya’s male-dominated parliament was “no longer at ease”, VAR waved play on.
What were the drafters thinking? Hon Millie expressed surprise at contrivances in the first place to raise taxes on bread. “Economists advising President Ruto are taking jokes too far”, the 4th term Mbita MP was not at ease, wasn’t in the House to please, to massage egos. Referee waved play on.
The brand of courage & confidence eased on, cited “Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office”. The book’s author Lois Frankel pitches for “the bold & beautiful” to “change the size of the playing field” – no one – not even taxes on pads can make ladies inferior. VAR waved play on. Millie was bold, asked the President to fire his economic advisers for drafting a “bitter not better or BETA” finance bill. Wasn’t Super Tuesday (Gen Z protests) but a “wake up call?” The eloquent “bad girl” offered some advice. Is no longer at ease Dr. Ruto taking notice?!
22 June
“Occupy” is the title of a book written by Noam Chomsky 10 years ago. The academic & social activist sheds light on the wave of protests worldwide against a heartless political economy factory-set to “serve the wealthy, ignore the poor”. Chomsky decries “plenty of wealth around, which people can see, just not in their pockets”. This insane inequality has ignited an unstoppable public insurgency against a dispensation that does NOT listen to or respond to the “precariat” – Chomsky’s reference to people living precarious lives.
“Occupy is a youth-led mass movement unafraid of disinformation, infiltration & police brutality. Its under-the radar convenors detest control & command hierarchies of manipulation. In the book, Chomsky speaks thus – “you don’t want leaders; you want to do it yourselves” without external strings attached…
Thanks! Mtetezi Owino Kotieno for promptly sending me a hard copy of “Occupy”, taking notes. Noam Chomsky has useful tips on how to sustain this class struggle. He favours day-to-day activities of representative working groups & ideas-led general assemblies. Calls for Occupy’s scaling up into a mass people’s movement. Chomsky is a realist; least expects instant coffee solutions – “you don’t win victory tomorrow”. This is going to be a long, arduous protracted struggle, with many setbacks. However long it takes ,victory over an unjust political order – & corporate manipulation is certain, assured:-
23 June
They couldn’t read the signs, where there’s smoke,a fire. In late 1989 in Romania, this was no joke. On the streets, a sea of humanity spoke in one voice; “we are the people! Down with Ceausescu!” The tyrant misread the national mood, opted for a tirade against “fascists” sponsoring the resistance. Comforted that the protests would die, he raised wages. WRONG. In a matter of days, Nikolae & first lady Elena Ceausescu were fleeing Bucharest. The rest is history.
They couldn’t read the signs. In Versailles, France, tired of the extravagance of King Louis XVI, a sea of humanity occupied streets outside the palace, spoke in one voice – “we are hungry! We need bread!” First Lady Marie Antoinette heard but totally misread the national mood. “Give them cakes”, she fumbled & stumbled. The rest is history.
Will they wake up and smell the coffee? Across universities in the USA, students are occupying campuses protesting against inhumanity in Gaza. “Stop the genocide! Free Palestine!”, comrades are speaking in one voice. War crimes sponsor Joe Biden has misjudged the national mood, he mumbles & rambles, toward a one-term presidency. Is Dr WS Ruto of Kenya, reading?
25 June
“This amount is obscene, we are not in! Won’t sin!” Scenes the Gen Z should be witness to. Instead, First Lady Rachel Ruto & Pastor Dorcas Rigathi are opting for the serene, silence. Fact is, the “bwana asifiwe” duo does NOT need 1.1 billion from struggling taxpayers. Their stinking rich spouses have over the past 2 decades accumulated obese wealth, feasting on lots of meat. Recall Uhuru Kenyatta’s “sisi tunakula nyama, nyinyi mnamwaga mate?”
“The 1.1 billion is obscene, we are not in!” Scenes we ought to witness yesterday. Instead, President Ruto’s “tunakula nyama” advisers on matters macro-economy stay put, push down on our throats a bitter “bottom-up transformation agenda” that is neither BETA nor better” (Millie Mabona).
In the midst of a poverty & inequality so rampant, there can never be austerity painted with such banality, such opulence. Unable to walk back from the rigidity of greed, a kleptocracy is frying itself from the pan into fire, out of power with such finality. REJECT! The finance bill is but a trajectory away! from the alacrity of “tunakula nyama, nyinyi mnamwaga mate”. Pamoja:-
27 June
The mirror tells a different story, Dr. WS Ruto’s ego is unstitched, a “tattered soul, punctured chest, his ego is burst & persona messed”, reads lyrics in “Sorting Infinity Ego Undone” on Bloomberg (2022).
Blinded by illusions of power, President Ruto & his yes-men presumed they were unbwogable. Their “outer shell was hard & thin, a mask to cover that within”, the song reads. Their arrogance knew no bounds, 2027 was to be another round, they couldn’t imagine “too much weight & it will crack”, the song reads on. Thanks! to a fearless generation of young persons, “the ego is stripped, what is left isn’t worth the time of day”, Ego Undone plays on….
“Tattered souls, ego burst”, the Kenya First kleptocracy is unstitched! Since Dr. WS Ruto placed the Biblus down, the day he was all over town with “so help me God”, it has been a cocktail of lies & u-turns. Of “stories that should not be told”, Ego Undone warns “broken truths will break his mold”. Blinded to the reality of poverty Dr. Ruto – & his deputy Riggy G now drown in a miasma of mediocrity. Government is in disarray “down the deeper hole (easy) targets of for all their foes”, Ego Undone reads on:-
28 June
Why! Do students of political economy burn the midnight oil digesting Lenin’s “State & Revolution?” This publication makes a distinction between spontaneous action & transformation in the conscience. In Lenin’s optics, the cardinal role of progressive movements is to lead the masses from “spontaneity” to “consciousness”. If this is NOT done, there’s a high probability of mass actions being infiltrated or hijacked by bureaucrats, anarchists & the stinking rich, the bourgeoisie.
Why do students burn the midnight oil reading Vladimir Lenin’s “Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism?” In a stern message on Kenya’s Gen Z protests, US legislator Illhan Omar has this week, hit the nail on the head: “it is crucial to recognize that IMF conditions have contributed to the economic hardships facing Kenya. These measures disproportionately affect the most vulnerable persons”. Dr WS Ruto & his economists have with untamed zeal, chewed imperialism’s bitter pill; now showing in reject! finance bill. Of the eruption of flames in Kenya, Harvard Prof. Robert Barro is apt; “the IMF doesn’t put out fires, it starts them”..
Why do students study “What Is to Be Done?” Because Lenin affirms, “we are free to go where we please, free to fight not only against the marsh but also against those who are turning towards the marsh” – forces of kleptocracy and capitalism. Struggles cannot be arrested for saying & doing the same things, expecting different results. In Lenin’s words, “the strength of the present-day” embryonic movement “lies in the awakening of the masses”. The march forward will face “precipitous & difficult paths”, to overcome. Building from spontaneity to consciousness is pivotal to sustain the momentum. It just cannot be one step forward, two steps back:-
30 June
A day can be a long time in politics. Look! at the fleet of chest thumping leaders. Just the other day, one boasted that newspapers were only neat for wrapping meat. He didn’t mean it? Now he bleats to the same papers, seeking a diet of publicity. Majivuno ni ya nini?
Absolute power corrupts, doesn’t last. In the beat “Dunia Tunapita”, Samba Mapangala sings about our fleeting journey on mother earth. What will remain are hills, valleys & ridges. The artist asks, “Majivuno ni ya nini?” And leadership scientist John Maxwell is unforgiving of the arrogant: “leaders who fail to prune their pride will meet their demise. That’s not a question of “if” but “when”….
Yeah! A day can be a long long time in politics. Look! at the fleet of chest-thumping leaders. One mesmerized people this-way that-way reciting verses from the Bible. He isn’t sitting pretty, deliberately left out Proverbs 16:18. It reads, “pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall”. Samba Mapangala asks, “majivuno ni ya nini?”
6 July
It is a rude awakening, in Africa. IMF and her lackeys are caught pants down, nude. The crude tax-tax policies do no good, enrage the national mood. It will no longer be business as usual for “tax what we think & drink, tax us more until we are sore”. Going-going for good?
It is Kenya’s wake! up call. A day can be a long time in politics. Fluid President Dr WS Ruto now scrambles to host virtual conferences in desperate efforts to dialogue. But rude armed men in civilian clothing lurk neighbourhoods. This & past week, families bereaved bury loved ones, victims of known tormentors in hoods, portraits of authoritarian rule.
In the book, “Democracy Awakening”, historian Heather Richardson tackles the struggles of oligarchy versus democracy. The author is concerned “America is teetering on the brink of authoritarianism.” Here, the ruling elite have for decades, weaponized language, falsified history & massaged the big man syndrome within & beyond its borders. The author is honest “democracies die more often through the ballot box than at gunpoint”. A reference to Trump & many other autocrats? We digress…
It is a rude awakening in Kenya’s corrupt, evasive & divisive political practice. Thanks! to the Gen Zs, the youth unafraid, are denting the “teeter towards authoritarianism”. In the words of historian Heather Cox Richardson, “the past has its own terrible inevitability. It is NEVER too late to change the future”. Taking notes:-
7 July
“Gen Zs are upset by the behaviour of the political elite; paid by taxpayers but showing no respect for the people”. Writes Dr Karuti Kanyinga in today’s Sunday Nation. Is this the endgame that fired us to march the streets of Nairobi on 7th July 1990? It wasn’t easy..
The 2010 Constitution that so united the people “provides for prudent use of public resources”. Unfortunately, it “has not been effectively implemented & the old order has triumphed”, reflects Dr Kanyinga in the Nation. Against provisions on leadership & integrity, two suspects charged with serious crimes at the Hague got a visa to occupy high public office. With this precedence, gates of impunity have since remained open. In retrospect Karuti reckons, Uhuru Kenyatta & William Ruto “should have waited to clear their names & then run for office later in the 2017 elections”. We concur.
This is the day Kenyans young & old across this our land & nation said enough is ENOUGH! to the politics of opulence, intolerance & arrogance. Not much has since changed, mambo ni yale yale. President Ruto is now the face of a “a culture that promotes the interests of a few elites at the expense of many in society”- why “Ruto must GO!” resonates. This late in the face of a Gen Z Tsunami, is a factory reset possible? How much this storm “will last depends on actions taken in response to Gen Z demands to build a system that works & delivers to all” writes Dr Karuti Kanyinga, on Sabasaba Day.
9 July
Ours was the Kampala ensemble. “Vijana msilale, lale-lale vijana msilale, bado mapambano”, the distinct collective voices rang loud and clear, a tinge of melancholy. Mukhisa Kituyi was our lead soloist, Otieno Kajwang’s baritone voice was more pronounced. The deeper tenor of Rumba Kinuthia, Otieno Okungu, James Kokonya & I blended in, as energetic…
What the hell were agemates of the current Gen Zs doing in distant Kampala? A year before in 1979, the Nyayo kleptocracy had thrown us out of campus for saying “Moi must go”. We got hunted out of this our land and nation like antelopes, Uganda became a second home. Hanging out together, singing patriotic songs became our forte. We particularly cherished South African liberation songs. “Nkosi sikelel’ Afrika, maluphakanyisw’ uphondo lwayo…’ It is like yesterday.
Fast forward to 2024. Kenya’s Gen Z are up, making us all proud. Last night on Citizen TV, Dr Mukhisa Kituyi spoke for each one of us. “Generation Z should see that they have a historical opportunity to do what the generation immediately before them failed to do”. Anguka! nao:-
12 July
Is this the sunset of Kenya’s entrenched patron-client politics? The cabinet stands dissolved, patronage not sitting pretty. The Gen Z protests have upset the apple cart, exposed a somerset of opaque & not so competent “clients” in public office serving vested interests, local & global.
4 years ago, in a paper “The Implications of Patron-Client Linkages on Democratic Governance in Developing Countries”, Towett Godfrey & Jonn Kungu of Maasai Mara university decried the negative consequences of patron-client politics on “the capacity of governments to produce needed public policies & goods”. Year in and out in Kenya, reports by the auditor general have amplified this factor, revealed incurable impunity in the use of public resources. A “client” parliament has sat pretty on these exposes. Until the Gen Zs arrived in town…
Cabinet stands dissolved, the patron, a “protecting saint in power” is not sitting pretty. As happened before from the days of Jomo, will patron-client linkages that so upset the masses re-position & reset? Is this the sunset of Kenya’s transactional politics of patronage & clientelism? It is perhaps too early, the jury is out. The basic structure of capital is as intact.
