Why the state of the nation is strong despite bad politics
Opinion
By
Kidi Mwaga
| Nov 24, 2025
Despite bad politics, the state of the nation is strong
Last Thursday, the President was in Parliament to give the State of the Nation address. In a high-trust society, this address would make citizens want to listen to their leader.
But in societies like ours, where trust has been eroded over time, such a function is met with suspicion, pessimism and even disdain. In his address, the President did what any politician would do: overestimating the impact of his policy decisions while downplaying the negatives as being the natural consequences of his big, bold actions.
But the state of the nation is strong. That verdict has been delivered by Kenyans whose unfailing optimism and hard work remain God’s best gift to this country. For years, our politics has been decaying. The social contract has been gasping for air in the midst of kleptomania and wastefulness that has become our modus operandi for a long time now.
When Kenyans throng stadiums to support our national football team, it is a far more eloquent expression of the state of the nation. When a blogger died in police custody and Kenyans collectively demanded justice, we were standing up for what is best in our midst. When the whole country came together to honour the life of former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, we all collectively exclaimed, “Here was a great man”. All these are a testament that the state of the nation is strong.
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As we design and build the next phase of our nationhood, I think we must recognise the olive branch that the President extended to all civic actors. Just before concluding his address, he recognised the work of the many Kenyans who strive daily to help build a better country.
That was my biggest takeaway. Power can choose juvenile obstinacy. It can choose to dominate by force of arms, citizens’ willingness to push back notwithstanding. When power out stretches its arms, you don’t hit it with a baseball bat. You grab it and begin to remind it that the many for whom it is put in office are yet to feel a change in their lives.
I say this from an understanding that to view politics as power in isolation leads one into treating it as a game, cynical and ultimately meaningless and cruel. While politics confers power and status, primarily, politics must be about ideas and ideals.
We must pose and ask ourselves, what is the goal of the social contract? Is it to insulate a select few from scrutiny or is it to give so many otherwise left out and left behind a chance to write better stories about their lives?
Sometimes, what we all see and hear is at cross purposes with the goals of the social contract. We see repression. We see corruption. We see a political design that threatens to permanently lock out a huge segment of our demographic from the promise of upward social mobility.
The danger is that, if left unchecked for long, the people begin to feel that the system is rigged against them. All their genuine effort to give themselves a better life feels like a zero-sum game.
Engaging in the civic process begins to feel like surrender to the forces that have sapped the energy and the ingenuity of the masses for decades. For example, you take time to examine the public debt problem, and you see the role of private banks.
You then begin to interrogate the nexus between private banks and the government's domestic borrowing. You extrapolate that with the understanding that political interest, personal motivations and economic incentives sometimes drive public policy at the expense of the common good.
It is precisely for this reason that we must take a step back and examine our yardstick for progress and growth. Together, let us rebuild the social contract.
Mr Kidi is the convener Inter-Parties Youth Forum.