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Why broad-based government is yet to inspire hope in Kenyans

Opinion

By Kidi Mwaga | Jan 20, 2025

Kenya is in deep pain. Out of it, I hope we will forge a new destiny which will be a continuation of the good work that the young people achieved last year, now famously christened Gen Z revolution. Kenya Kwanza, as presently constituted, has not demonstrated willingness to govern in a manner that will help us obliterate the misrule of yester-years.

That so many Kenyans wish Mwai Kibaki was back is a testament to that. I came to this conclusion when I watched the President attending a church service with members of his newly-minted special purpose vehicle called broad-based government. This told the entire country that an impersonal state predicated on meritocracy will remain a pipe-dream in a long time to come.

The new cast in Dr Ruto’s government confirms to the whole world that the noise we used to hear from their corner was simply because there was no chance to put their snouts in the feeding trough. One MP was even more unguarded before the President when she said that those who are calling out this regime should leave Kenya. Strong is the temptation to ask her and her ilk, leave Kenya to where? Leave Kenya for what and for whom? While we understand that she has to dance herself lame to find political relevance, it’s a testament to many young people of this country that, in the words of Diogenes the philosopher “if you learn to live on lentils, you will not have to be subservient to the king”.

A lot of these folks crowding the President’s events are decapitating William Ruto politically. They are masterfully inciting public anger against a regime whose approval ratings is already tanking towards single digit. With the high turnover in Kenya Kwanza, we must make peace with the fact that this country will have a saviour. Just not the one manning State House now.

How can insolence become an official policy of a regime and such regime still think that it can rely on some asinine patronage networks to claim any legitimacy? The patronage only works where people are disengaged to know what works for them and what is in their best interest. But in a country that boasts highest literacy levels in the region with higher internet penetration, the best that the arrogance of those in power can help achieve is to expedite the day we will say, “Change has indeed come to our land”.

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All the misplaced bravado, both by the old members of Kenya Kwanza together with the new converts, makes one think that this administration has gone mad on self-preservation when it continues to insult the many poor parents whose children it has killed literally and figuratively. The question is, what does it give those that join it that make them lose all the good sense we used to think they had?

A case in point is the former deputy speaker who shocked our collective conscience when he literally insulted all those opposed to Kenya Kwanza and some its programmes, like yours truly, by referring to the nakedness of our mothers. To Mzee Farah Maalim, we pose the question, where is your manners, where is your prudence as a senior legislator? Where is your good judgment?

Sometimes countries are able to forge new destinies not due to the skills of those in power but as a consequence of the larger vision of ordinary men and women unwilling to let nobody ride on their backs. It’s that courage that made Ethiopians to humiliate Italians at the battle of Adowa. It’s that courage that made Patrick Henry tell the empire “Give me liberty or give me death” we must summon that collective courage and tell this regime that no threat of death nor insolence will turn us around. We will either have an accountable government or nothing at all.

Mr Kidi is the convener Inter Parties Youth Forum. [email protected]