Opposition must rethink strategy to boost its chances of ousting Ruto

An Opposition Campaign in Kisii County,Kenya.[File,Standard]

An opposition that seems more interested in internal power games than in the existential plight of the Kenyan people is treating us to a masterclass in political suicide.

Ideally, as the 2027 General Election draws closer, the current administration under President William Ruto, whose promises have proven as ephemeral as morning mist, should be on the defensive. Instead, the administration is being handed a silver platter by the very people tasked with holding it to account.

Ruto remains a formidable contender despite a record that would, in a functional democracy, be his political obituary. The truth is, Kenyans are being presided over by an establishment that has perfected the art of the ‘false dawn’.

From the high-octane rhetoric of the ‘Hustler Fund’, which has become a mere drop in the ocean of national debt, to the systematic tribalisation of the public service, the grievances are legion. Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee recently revealed that nearly half of the staff in key government offices hail from a single ethnic community, which is a flagrant middle finger to the constitutional requirement for fair distribution of the national cake.

The question is, where is the alternative? Evidently, it is bogged down in the doldrums of ideological bankruptcy. While the commoner is besieged by the skyrocketing cost of living and the militarisation of public order, as evidenced by the body count of the 2024 and 2025 youth protests, the opposition is busy marking its territory.

They are fighting over who gets to sit at the head of a table that is currently being sold for scrap by the ruling elite. This phenomenon of a fumbling opposition is not a uniquely Kenyan malaise. 

One needs only look at Venezuela, where for years, a fragmented and ego-driven opposition allowed the Nicolas Maduro regime to consolidate power despite a collapsed economy and international pariah status. They spent more time arguing about who should be the interim president than building a cohesive grassroots movement, effectively handing the regime a lifeline every time it looked ready to sink.

Similarly, in Hungary, Viktor Orbán has fortified his ‘illiberal democracy’ not necessarily because he is loved, but because the opposition remained a cacophony of disparate voices for a decade. By the time they decided to form a united front in 2022, the “monster” had already devoured the institutions of state, making the contest a mere formality.

Even in the United Kingdom, the Labour Party spent years in the political wilderness during the 2010s, paralysed by internal purges and ideological challenges, which allowed a succession of Conservative prime ministers to survive scandals that should have ended their careers instantly.

In Kenya, the script follows this path of self-aggrandisement. The opposition’s inability to rein in their own ambitions has given Ruto room to breathe. Despite his indifference to curbing police excesses, with abductions and extrajudicial killings becoming the new ‘Standard Operating Procedure’, the ruling party is gaining ground simply because the alternative looks like a ship without a rudder.

The opposition has failed to realise that Gen-Z energy was not a gift to it. Rather, it was a rejection of the entire political class. By attempting to ‘hijack’ this movement rather than learn from its decentralised, issue-based clarity, the old guard will fade into oblivion.

If the opposition were organised, disciplined, and focused on the bread and butter issues rather than ethnic arithmetic, the 2027 race would be a foregone conclusion. But as it stands, we are witnessing a classic case of the kettle calling the pot black. Both sides seem to suffer from a paucity of genuine concern for the hustler they both claim to champion.

Unless the opposition takes the steam out of its own internal rivalries and presents a fortified, singular vision, they will continue to be the ‘useful idiots’ of the status quo. They are handing a second chance to an administration that has shown us exactly who they are.

The tragedy is that our ‘watchmen’ have fallen asleep at the gate, and the city is being ransacked.