Types of political power seekers and why youths hold key to better Kenya

Politics, the art of seeking power in order to control and distribute available resources, attracts many players and pervades every aspect of society. Some competitors are unfit for offices but they are serious about getting power. Others want power to keep potential rivals from having it. The ability to monopolise or deny others access to specific resources is high politics. Who gets that power, at the local or international levels, is a consequence of stiff competition that at times can be deadly.

Acquiring political power leads to other benefits and calls for clarity of mind on what to do and how to do it. This is the ability to balance ruthlessness with cunning and not to confuse the two. Since many power wielders end up confusing the two, they plunge countries into chaos partly because they lack critical knowledge that is often obtained from the study of history, the humanities, and political economy.

Those who miss exposure to good knowledge appear confused, blunder in governance, and act against the national interests. Kenyan leaders are guilty of confusion, betraying national interests, and policy blundering.

Politics dominates post-colonial Kenya because it supposedly opens other doors. There are three types of people who want access to power. These are natural political operators who respond to given a bad environment, those with immense wealth to protect by holding political offices and youthful idealists and day-dreamers. The natural operators tend to be afflicted by political diseases and spend most of their time scheming individually or through political parties.

If they are not the candidates, they become perpetual party youth wingers who act as storm-troopers. Many become political beggars who can be mobilised with Sh200 or Sh300. At election campaign time, they have t-shirts for every political occasion and expertly shout the name of the sponsoring candidate.

The second type comprises those who have money and consider political offices to be either security or an opening to make more money. For them, political offices are money mints. The third type; idealists and day-dreamers, tend to be ‘revolutionaries’ who exploit existing bad situations and try to actualise their dreams. They often are youngish, energetic, and brilliant.

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The youngish idealists drive change which seems like Ituika, or generational shift, roughly every 30 years and they leave a mark. These include the Harry Thuku and Muthoni Nyanjiru’s uprisings in 1922 that drew attention to colonial Kenya, Mau Mau operators in the 1950s, and the ‘Young Turks’ in the late 1980s and early 1990s who helped to restore multi-party politics.

Now, roughly three decades later, are the Millenials, the Gen Zs, and the Alphas. It was Gen Z idealism that captured attention and awoke the conscious of the nation with their willingness to sacrifice comfort and lives in opposing the draconian the 2024 Finance Bill.

Noting that the country was drifting into tyranny, they demanded accountability, adherence to the spirit of the national anthem, and fidelity to the Constitution. Their sisters at Butere Girls, the Alphas, excited the public with the 2025 ‘Chaos of war’ play about a state collapsing due to unaccountable governance.

The play mentioned youngish politicians in Parliament as role models who included Babu Owino and ‘Bad Girl' Millie Odhiambo. Both Babu and ‘Bad Girl’ were happy that the youth adore them.

Babu is at times linked to Ndindi Nyoro, the Kiharu MP, possibly to spearhead youth involvement in electoral politics. They are not alone in appealing to the youth. When Uhuru Kenyatta told his daughter, Ngina, to go out and become part of the Gen Z movement, he touched on the reality that the country is not in good shape. Their youthfulness challenges the youth to go out and ‘get’ rather than wait to be given.

The 2024 Gen Z slogan of being party-less, tribe-less, and leader-less can become a generational movement that ensures the youth vote out those experienced in bad governance.