Meaningful dialogue must start with justice for police brutality victims

Protestors making their way to parliament in Nairobi during the demonstrations against the Finance Bill 2024 in Nairobi on June 25, 2024. [Denis Kibuchi, Standard]

It did not have to take needless killings of young Kenyans for reason to prevail. On this matter alone, President William Ruto failed the people he leads. 

Indeed, extending an olive branch does not amount to an atonement, but it is a positive step towards healing a nation badly battered by poor governance.

As the leaderless and tribeless youths consider the President's invitation to dialogue, it is clear that they do not trust his leadership and of those they elected their representatives.

You cannot fault them. When they made it loud and clear that they opposed the Finance Bill, forced down our throats by international lenders, they were met with chest-thumping and ridicule.

When they poured into the streets to air their grievances, they found bloodthirsty snipers aiming for their heads. And amid it all, the government explored more brutal options against it's people, deploying the Kenya Defence Forces to quell what had been peaceful protests until frustrated by police violence.

Similarly, threats by the President to crackdown on protesters, calling patriots exercising their constitutionally guaranteed rights "organised criminals", fuels mistrust in the government and puts to question Dr Ruto's capacity to lead.

But all is not lost. With dialogue comes the chance to "fix" things that haven't been working for us since independence.

Corruption and cronyism have no place in our country, as does extra-judicial killings that the President refuses to admit took place during the nationwide protests.

He must start there. For the nation to begin to learn to trust him again, he must acknowledge that there were extra-judicial killings. The world watched as police opened fire at protesters outside Parliament buildings. They watched as a murderous officer opened fire on a retreating crowd, killing Rex Kanyike Masai, the first publicised victim of the protests.

Denying the killings is an insult to the nation and the Head of State must swallow his pride and apologise for his denial, State-sanctioned abductions and killings of innocent Kenyans. It is not enough to say the dead "will be accounted for".

The President must understand that his word is not enough, not as abductions that he described as police arrests continue despite his surrender. 

Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has urged that responsibility be borne on the killings and we expect nothing less.

Any meaningful dialogue must begin with seeking justice for every young Kenyan who lost their life. Justice begins with accountability. It begins with the arrest of rogue officers who killed, maimed and abducted young Kenyans. It begins with the resignation of those who oversaw the bloodbath.

Only real action can pacify Kenyans, still angered by the government's indifference to their plight, expressed through talking down at them and endless flaunting of opulence by the President's allies.

And there must be a withdrawal of threats of reprisal by the Head of State, issued on an evening when many Kenyans were coming to terms with the deaths and maiming of loved ones.

President Ruto must call off security officers he set on Kenyans and the nation must work to ensure no president will again wield such power.

While national emblems and institutions are critical to our nationhood, they are not superior to mwananchi, whose blood paints our national flag.

He must withdraw his reference to the demonstrations as "treasonous" and commit against seeking out protesters exercising their democratic responsibility.

In this way, he puts to rest war of self-preservation pitting a president who intends to stay in office and young Kenyans afraid of government reprisal.