being paid to keep peace by being included in the government . He is aware that he will never be allowed in through the front door .
Since he is not a nationalist and his antics only serve to feather his family nest , he has developed a rhetoric that paints him as the savior of the country . If you think about it , if he ever saves the country then his mystic would vanish . He thrives in chaos .
Then the black swan appeared in the form of a Gen-Z uprising which is akin to the Mau Mau rebellion in that it was not individually instigated but was a viral reaction to political insensitivity and arrogance that was irritating and causing hardship to the Mwanainchi .
The unbridled greed of the current political class has galvanized the young to an unanticipated revolt . The current leaders , finding themselves short of resources have devised ways to raid the Mwanainchi ’ s pocket with no remorse .
Their sudden and furious reaction has caught the political class flatfooted and since they are educated , intelligent and coordinated , they have been able to interrogate the current system of government and found out it is based on lies .
That is the reason why they do not see the need for a dialogue with the leadership since they hold power thanks to an alleged democratic system , all they are demanding is that leaders follow the constitution .
The president recently bragged that he is a nice man since he would have muzzled the media and shut off the internet if he chose to do so , again demonstrating that he has either not read the constitution or does not understand democracy .
The president is actually behaving as though he is doing Kenyans a favor by allowing them to speak and express themselves yet all these things are enshrined in the constitution and the Gen-Z want leaders to be held accountable for their actions .
Kenyans have been brainwashed to fear anarchy since independence yet it was anarchy that bought our independence . The absence of war does not mean that all is well in Kenya . The ones who value peace in
Kenya has never been free since independence and the successive governments that have led the country were just stewards for the real owners of the land and as long as they were allowed to live like the royalty , they have not cared about the lot of the Mwananchi .
Kenya are the beneficiaries of the status quo .
But a seismic change has taken place in Kenya and the after-shock will be felt way into the future as the new politically aware and active young Kenyans who form the majority of the population will no longer normalize the unacceptable .
To quote Bernard Shaw , the biggest single problem of communication is the illusion that it has taken place . The president thinks or believes he has listened to the Gen-Zs but his actions are diametrically opposed to their requests .
Looking into the crystal ball , this impasse may be just what Kenya needed in that the many liberations that have been attempted in the country have failed because they were led by politicians who felt they had been left out of the eating table .
The liberation that can and should take place is first and foremost a liberation of the mind and Gen-Zs have shown us that all Kenyans suffer equally under a kleptocracy and the enemy is the Politian who live in largesse at our expense .
Every year this unprincipled class siphon billions of dollars out of the country and launder it through tax havens in multiple Western financial centers hence the reason why Kenya is heavily indebted yet has nothing to show for the borrowed money .
The loans never leave the West , yet the hapless Mwanainchi is left carrying the baby with unending onerous taxes which makes him a slave to the West by connivance of the corrupt political elite who continue to hoodwink us on a daily basis .
The Gen-Zs have removed the blinkers and what Kenyans have at hand is a patriotic battle to reclaim their country from the political stooges that represent the interests of the West . The ridiculous irony of being resource rich and still poor has to end .
Kenyans must call out the corrupt leaders that have kept the country down and if there is going to be a national dialogue it has to be one that corrects the historical injustices that we have lived with and enables the Mwanainchi to stop leasing his country from foreigners .
The political ground has forever shifted in Kenya , we have oft lamented the inadequacy of democracy in an African setting , but it is clear that the problem is not the system but good and law-abiding citizens who shun politics and allow unscrupulous louts to govern them .
We have entered an age of accountability and the people are waking up to the reality that sovereign power resides with the people just as the constitution had intended . If we need to translate the constitution into vernacular to make it accessible , so be it .
But the days of Baba or any other politician reading the constitution and interpreting it for us is over . But the constitution only works when the institutions that support democracy are robust and independent . They must be revived at whatever cost and jealously guarded .
The mess we find ourselves in was achieved by trusting those we have delegated power to and they have killed the very institutions that buttress the development we seek and crave . Indeed , when the leadership has no vision , the people perish .
August 2024 Marketing Africa Magazine Cover Story was assembled and weaved together by the Marketing Africa editorial crew . For feedback or any more discourse please drop us a line at : Info @ marketingafrica . co . ke