External, internal factors that have sunk Kenyans deep into desperation

Many emerging fora, some religiously affiliated, have tried to understand what afflicts our country and have generally concluded that Kenya has sunk deep into desperation. The country is fluid, unstable, and creates anxiety, which has external and internal sources. External sources include forces of state debordering, which make national boundaries irrelevant. These include the Internet, terrorism, and such vagaries of nature as droughts and floods.

They also include trans-nationalised conflicts from neighbouring or near neighbour countries that destabilise borderline communities. In addition, unpleasant extra-continental activities such as wars, port imperialism, and manufactured crises affect the welfare of the people. The external ability to manipulate global organs, some more powerful than countries, weakens Kenya’s ability to protect its interests.

While external forces explain some desperation, most of the desperation is manufactured internally. First, since 1933, the country has failed to achieve its stated goal of building a nation out of its many groups. This is in part because, on the eve of independence, departing colonialists created a perpetual sense of division through schools and the media. Second, there seemingly prevailed high-level incompetence in decision-making offices, which led to the perceived sacrifice of Kenya’s national interests.

In each country, there are national assets which should never fall into foreign hands. Incompetence at the policy-making level seemingly allowed this breach of the national interest principle. As reports keep cropping up of high-level failure to protect national interests, a sense of national despair makes Kenyans feel helpless and therefore desperate.

Third, a climate of political desperation across the country arose from botched policies and bad habits. Among the bad habits are what appear to be organised violence by groups called ‘goons’ who seem to enjoy semi-official ‘protection'.

Goon activities, directed mostly at politicians who question government performance, tend to produce new political heroes. Among them is the emergence of Edwin Sifuna with his appeal to the youth and display of leadership courage in Kakamega when he stood firm in the midst of tear gas and implored others not to run away and they obeyed.

Lethal tongue

There is also former Deputy Rigathi Gachagua with a lethal tongue that can arouse the crowd as he exposes assorted government misdeeds. Other potential forces include Winnie Odinga trying to claim her father’s political space. Sifuna appears to dwarf established political players who include Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka, currently the leading challenger to President William Ruto, who is desperately trying to defend his performance in the middle of public scepticism.

Ruto appears to have panicked because the trust that the public had given him in 2022 has turned to vapour and is evaporating fast. He has turned to using crass language, which his critics claim is unpresidential. He presided over institutional decay, which made former National Assembly Speaker and Attorney General Justin Muturi assert that Ruto is unfit to hold the office of president. On its part, an emasculated Parliament has failed as custodian of public interest, which increases the amount of desperation in the country.

Besides the Parliament, there are accusations and counter-accusations regarding the Judiciary, which tends to make the public lose faith in the organs of justice. The fact that people in the executive routinely ignore court decisions and pleadings that they obey court orders does not inspire confidence. Instead, it adds to the national sense of desperation. Select members of the executive and friends flaunt wealth in the midst of mass poverty and show a lack of concern for the collapsing national education and health systems.

Finally, Ruto, with his excessive dependency on and search for validation from external forces, is largely responsible for the prevailing sense of national desperation. The Gen Zs, in 2024, questioned Kenya’s subservience and loss of strategic national assets to external interests that erode national sovereignty. Since Kenyans never voted for the IMF/World Bank or the UAE or the warlords in Sudan, their ability to determine what Kenya does leads to deep desperation.