Anti-government protests have been happening in my country Kenya for the last few months. The opposition leader Mr Raila Odinga and his supporters declared protests against the regime of the recently elected president Mr William Samoei Ruto.
You see, Mr Raila lost last year’s elections to president Ruto.
For the nth time, Mr Raila refused to accept defeat, and after seeking help from the courts, he subsequently lost the case to President Ruto. No sooner had the court annuled his alleged victory than he announced anti-government protests.
There are so many reasons why I do not like the politics of any nation with several tribes and ethnical groups. For example, a country like Kenya will always have a very ugly political landscape. When there are no physical wars, the deadlier silent wars happen everyday in the markets, the tenement houses, the streets, everywhere.
In 2007, after Mr Raila refusing to accept defeat from our former president Mwai Kibaki ( now deceased), there erupted a really bloody tribal clash that left thousands dead and thousands more displaced. What’s more, billions worth of property was destroyed, and the country had to slowly rebuild itself from rubble and dust. Since then, the wound has never healed. Many were left orphaned, and many more were left maimed and disabled, both physically and mentally.
Kenya has more than 40 tribes. For those who don’t know, all these tribes have their own languages, their own customs and traditions, their own ancestral lands, etc. When a politician from a certain tribe vies for the office of president, he/she will get almost 90% support from his tribesmen irregardless of his attributes. This means that when the president is from the biggest tribe in Kenya ( the Kikuyu), he or she will get maximum support from them, and the choice of vote for all other tribes will not realise. What do you think will happen to the other candidate who came from another medium sized tribe? Especially when the said candidate also serves as the opposition leader!!
I shall not describe the crudeness of the protests themselves, but to give you a sketch, the new expressway was vandalised by vulgar men, the tolling booths were destroyed, cars were burnt on the road, people were beaten by the protesters and police, the police were beaten by the people, buildings were destroyed, some small business owner’s shops were destroyed, goods purloined, etc etc.
My concern is that when the news outlets published the stories of vandalism and rampant restlessness caused by the protests, a big majority of the Facebook followers pressed the ” haha” reaction. The comments were light and reckless. Infact, many people are of the opinion that the protests should continue. Another politician, @Babu Owino, has posted on his Facebook page four days ago encouraging supporters to continue resisting the government. Instead of mature comments in his thread, all comments are casual, careless and dumb. If one researches, the most zealous of the anti-government protesters are people coming from the lower classes of society. They do it for reasons that themselves cannot intelligently explain. That do not know the science of politics, nor do they care about the constitution. That a citizen can be willing to believe that if a certain man governs the nation ( so long as, of course, he’s a member of their tribe), living standards will be better, food will be cheap, our currency will be stronger, etc, etc, etc.
Unfortunately for many African countries, our leaders collectively suffer from a condition I have christened the “money syndrome”, or, of one may like, “the sudden money syndrome”. This syndrome comes as a result of a poor kid who grew in dire poverty suddenly getting power as a politician. With power comes greed, and with greed, fraud in the form of corruption. Indeed, even as John Grant wrote, “fraud is the daughter of greed.” I shall talk about this later.
What every individual needs to do is ask themselves, ” am I doing the right thing?” Or, ” might I be doing the right thing but in the wrong way?”. Emotional health sits in a lonely pit while both leader and citizen are so sick emotionally. It is a sadder truth that people are not interested in investing in their emotional health! We need certificates and degrees in this field or another, but our hearts and minds are corrupted by greed, selfishness and every sort of ill. Our ethics as a nation are gone. We think of ourselves, and ourselves only.
A call to every African country: while we claim to enjoy the fruits of independence, are we going down the road of distruction by our silliness and unserious attitude of life? That we are a self governing body does not mean we cannot copy noted from other western countries where the people are more civilised! If we only think about the here and now, our children will suffer from our own foolishness.
The government should open emotional health centres all over the country. People should be taught how to oive their lives by numbers!! One and all must be willing to think deep and hard.
I don’t care about politics and governments, or on whether such a president should step down or not, but the situation in Kenya is quite disheartening and very complex, given our diversity of preference, thought, opinion, superstition, etc.
What I can say is, I am NOT so proud of my country. How I wish there was a remedy for all this chaotic mess!! Better still, how one wishes there was no mess at all in the first place!
My fellow youth, let’s reform our country if we are ever to reform the systems of the world.
And should you ever feel the urge to take to the streets, at least be take your mind with you.
