'Mimi ndio Sifuna': Why people are seeking political change

When an individual’s name morphs into a metaphor, it signals a crisis of representation. What began as an individual introducing himself has become a slogan. “Mimi ndio Sifuna; I am Sifuna.” Yet, this is elliptical. The meaning is incomplete.

A complete non-elliptical translation would read, “I am the Sifuna.” We have often heard people say, “Read between the lines.” Something is being said, by not being said. The complete message is, “I am the Sifuna you are hearing about, and I am unafraid.”  

Youthful Kenyans are taking up this message. They are identifying themselves with the ODM Secretary General, a man in the eye of a political storm. They are identifying themselves with Sifuna’s anti-William Ruto politics and with his combative eloquence. This slogan, therefore, expresses hunger for audible defiance. 

Let us get this right: Edwin Sifuna is not just being praised. Something deeper is happening when people say, “I am Sifuna,” or “We are Sifuna,”

The slogan is bridging the distance between the leader and the follower. It frames Sifuna as a proxy voice, speaking for many others, in a period of political fatigue. They are fed up with the usual humdrum of political propaganda caddying, ingratiating, and jockeying around power. The slogan is therefore not about Sifuna the man, but the moment he represents.  

In the low season of political boredom – when even Raila Odinga himself appeared to have surrendered and embraced Ruto – there came this sudden, sharp, and unafraid powerful voice. It was loud and clear. It named national grievances without self-censorship or hesitation. It was about political embodiment. It remains so. 

Whether this embodiment and capturing of the people’s imagination is sustainable is another matter. There are lessons aplenty from history; from Kwame Nkrumah to Nelson Mandela, and from Thomas Sankara to Raila Odinga. Team Sifuna has touched off political freshness that has especially captured the youth. What are the possible scenarios going forward?  

If the energy translates into lasting political structures, it could lead to greater institutionalised democratic change. This means Team Sifuna must go beyond the excitement of crowds in rallies, to structured organisation and mobilisation.

When they depart from Kitengela after a hugely successful rally, what do they leave behind, beyond a sense of catharsis? Is there an active constituency-level organisation that they will tap into, going forward, or does the rally’s value end with exciting the crowd? 

Sifuna’s adversaries will be happy to know he is not leaving behind any structured or durable youth mobilisation, for example. As a social media aesthetic, “I am Sifuna” is beautiful and promising. Can it, however, morph into a viable political formation? If the slogan stays for too long in the meme-energy space without structures, it risks hitting an unproductive plateau.  

Matters are complicated further by the Kenyan reality of ever-shifting political alliances. The next election is 18 months away. This can be both a long time away and a short time, depending on where we look at it from. Alliances will shift. Parties and movements will renegotiate positions. The ethnic factor will reaffirm itself. The system will seek to absorb, neutralise, or co-opt rising stars.  

The one thing that the ODM dissenters cannot afford to forget is that “I am Sifuna” is a search for identity. It really means, “I see myself in this defiance.” The slogan is not, therefore, a coronation of Edwin Sifuna. It is a mirror through which people see themselves. They are seeing agency in Sifuna and fellow ODM dissenters. They long for sustained courage that could bring about meaningful change.  

In the search for courage and change, therefore, they are urging the dissenters to find a broader generational political change grammar. The real test, accordingly, is not whether individuals will glow; it is whether institutions will grow. Will Sifuna and team wrestle ODM’s followers from Oburu Oginga and William Ruto, and organise them for change, or will they be satisfied that they drew huge crowds? 

Crowds are fickle, rallies kinetic. On Monday morning, energised crowds will throw their clothes on the road and invite you to ride your donkey over them. They will shout, “Hosanna in the highest.” On Friday, they will shout, “Crucify him!” Charisma excites, but excitement is not institutional. 

The one lesson from Raila’s career is that charisma produces rallies, not regimes. Structures organise and stabilise. They may not excite, but they produce regimes. “I am Sifuna” needs to blend rallies with organised structural mobilisation. If not, it will be remembered as “exciting energy that was.”