Beware, some victories are actually defeats in disguise

Tanzania's Samia Suluhu Hassan was inaugurated as president on November 3, 2025, state TV showed, with an internet blackout still holding after election protests in which the opposition says hundreds were killed by security forces.[AFP]

Anyone who tells you that history and mythology are useless is lying. To understand what is happening in our politics today, we need to look back at history and mythology and listen to their lessons. History shows us that not every victory is worth celebrating. Some wins are too costly, morally, socially, and politically. Some victories become defeats in disguise, leaving behind damaged individuals, institutions and a society that has to pick up the pieces long after the applause ends.

The Greeks gave us a name for such hollow triumphs: the Pyrrhic victory. The term comes from King Pyrrhus of Epirus, who in 279 BCE defeated the Romans at the Battle of Asculum. Although he claimed victory over the Roman legions, his army was shattered beyond repair. Surveying the broken bodies of his finest soldiers, he declared, “Another such victory and we are undone.” The tragedy was clear. He had won the battle but lost his future. Since then, a Pyrrhic victory describes a win that leaves the victor so weakened that the success becomes meaningless.

Allow me to delve further into Greek mythology. King Midas was a ruler obsessed with wealth and the promise of endless prosperity. He believed he had secured the greatest victory imaginable when he was granted the power to turn anything he touched into gold. But this gift soon revealed its curse, as his food, his drink, and even his beloved daughter transformed into lifeless metal in his arms. His triumph destroyed the very joys that made life worth living. This proved that some victories, when gained at too great a cost, become bitter defeats.

These classical lessons are more relevant than ever for Africa. Politics here has increasingly become a high-stakes battlefield. In these battles, winning appears to be the ultimate goal. No matter the consequences. A political contest is reduced to war. Opponents become enemies. Citizens become collateral damage. And when the dust settles, the winner stands triumphant in the ruins.

Consider what recently transpired in Tanzania. President Samia Suluhu Hassan was declared the winner with a staggering sweep, a number so overwhelming that it should have inspired deep national pride. Yet behind the statistics lingered fear and anger. Opposition leaders were locked out of the race, protests erupted, and security forces responded with tear gas and live bullets. Questions remain about those who disappeared, were injured, or never returned home. Yes, she won. But this victory was built upon silence, intimidation, and a lingering sense of injustice. When the cost of power is national unity and political legitimacy, the triumph begins to look like a pyrrhic victory.

Here in Kenya, our recent by-elections became miniature wars. Huge sums of money were poured into campaigns to win the seat. Communities were split into hostile camps. Insults replaced ideas. Our rules and regulations governing elections were trashed. The winners are basking in glory while we have entrenched bribery and bad manners in our national body politic. The seats were won, but the nation lost. We must ask ourselves: Is it truly a victory if the citizens are left morally defiled? Democracy is not merely about who wins the vote. It is about the ethos we instill and how we live together after the results are announced. Triumph that sacrifices peace, justice, truth, or the soul is not a triumph at all. Victory that leaves a trail of destruction carries within it the seed of future collapse. This is the wisdom of the ages.

Even the Scriptures speak clearly about this. Jesus posed one of the most piercing questions ever asked: “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?” In that single sentence, He exposes the ultimate failure of Pyrrhic victory, the loss of one’s essence. In the same Bible, King Saul won battles, conquered territories, and enjoyed applause from his people, yet he lost the favour of God. His throne became a burden too heavy to bear. Why? Because his victories were not grounded in righteousness. The Bible insists that a true win must honour human dignity and uphold moral integrity. A victory should leave a nation more united, strengthen institutions, and protect life, not stain the ground with blood. It should enhance trust and uplift the soul of a nation.

Power gained through fear and bribery is not power. Success purchased with the suffering of the people is failure. National pride cannot be built on the silence of those too afraid to speak, nor can democracy grow in the soil of intimidation and bribery.

The applause of a moment is a dangerous illusion if the cost is the future. There is no honour in gaining power if we destroy the very moral fabric of the nation we claim to lead.

A victory that costs our humanity is simply Pyrrhic victory. It is a momentary triumph that prepares the path to ruin.