There is little for Kenyans to celebrate under Kenya Kwanza government

President William Ruto chairs a Cabinet meeting. [File, Standard]

A deeply frayed social contract is always a sign of internal decay within a political order. Today, to say that Kenya is a home to broken dreams is to be extremely polite. But that state of affairs obtains for the simple reason that the demands of the present generation have outstripped existing political thinking and the attendant institutions. That is precisely why the Kenya Kwanza administration, while reveling in the afterglow of the electoral win, could afford the acts of impunity that it deployed against the people. Never in the history of this country has a government come into office and immediately turned its instruments of violence against the people it should defend. Not within the first year.

When President Daniel arap Moi came into power, his first major act was releasing of political prisoners. At least, he showed a willingness for benevolence. When Mwai Kibaki came in, he raised revenue collection while opening school gates for children who had hitherto been locked out of classrooms. I will give the Jubilee administration a pass.

Kenya Kwanza came in and in the first year, 80 Kenyans lay dead for expressing their political views. We must remember the people in places like Nyalenda who were senselessly mauled by police during the protests about the high cost of living in 2023. When we thought that was an accident, the government confirmed to us that brutalising the people is its modus operandi. In the wake of the now famous Gen Z protests, so many innocent lives were cut short by the instrument of violence that we, the people, have donated to the State.

As we get into the Christmas week, let’s remember the families of Rex Maasai, Denzel Omondi and the many victims of State-sponsored terror against the people of Kenya. In this moment as everyone is lamenting over the high cost of living, such families will also be mourning the promising lives of their loved ones cut short by the State.

That little introspection goes on among the political class is seen when instead binding up the wounds it has created by senseless deployment of violence, like compensating victims and their families, you see the old political order closing ranks. At whose expense?

Then comes in the hashtag #RutoDelivers

You ask yourself why would a sensible administration be desperate to declare victory prematurely and fuel public anger by staging victory dances?

For instance, there is an attempt to suggest that we have finally fixed the problems in the agriculture sector ostensibly because there was a purported fertiliser subsidy programme. Yet, at the time of writing of this article, some people are in need of humanitarian assistance as a result of food shortage. But it does not occupy the front pages because our friends manning the State have deployed the states capacity to mold public sentiment to some mythical delivery.

If you turn your eye to the security sector, no one citizen would say s/he is safe for you don’t know when the bad guys are going to close in on you. Kisumu residents, for instance, have a self-imposed curfew because by 8:30pm gangs take over the streets literally. While you may think that there is only trouble with criminals, wait until you are picked up by the police. While the law says a suspect should be produced in court within 24 hours, one can be kept incommunicado for days on end. If you think I am making this up, ask the now famous Kitengela three.

And if you thought it could not get worse, look at the government’s most intelligent policy intervention in regards to mounting unemployment rate. Shipping human capital, that we have developed painstakingly to the Middle East and Europe to engage in unskilled and semi-skilled labour while public servants are becoming overnight millionaires with no single industry to their name, is shameful.

While the ongoing ethnic elite rapprochement might stabilise the State, we must take advantage of it to insist on our own set of ‘minimum reforms’ to ensure that we ultimately preserve the soul of the nation.

Mr Mwaga the convener Inter-Parties Youth Forum. [email protected]