Engage in trauma bonding, but do not forget suffering Kenyans

President William Ruto and his deputy Rigathi Gachagua at State House, Nairobi. [File, Standard]

The ongoing political trauma bonding puzzles on many fronts. The top Kenya Kwanza government brigade went full-throttle for Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga during the 2022 election campaigns with sharp gaslighting strategies.

Of course, year after year from bad weather to climate change, to high cost of living, to tribal clashes to maandamano, and to anything that sounds like a good scapegoat, Raila is the punching bag for both political novices and maestros in the field. In the past year, Uhuru has come under sharp tongue-lashing for allegedly funding the demonstrations that were gaining momentum in parts of the country.

As it begins its second year, the Kenya Kwanza government is beginning to wake up to the reality of its own internal indigestion. For the past year, whoever dares to offer a critique towards its disorganised management of public affairs has been targeted for refusing to acknowledge that it is in power or for nurturing negativity.

Constructive criticism has up until now measured on positive tonality or, in other words quite frankly, positive skewness. On this pedal, constructive criticism would be one where the government is "urged to ..." rather than questioned.

Constructive criticism, thankfully, is coming from within the Kenya Kwanza tent. Uhuru, the very person who was accused of being a tyrant, out-of-touch with reality, mlevi, directionless and messing up the country, turns out to be the uniter, the symbol of progress the country needs. A litany of praises emerges in the Mountain as well as from Nyanza.

Let us be honest. If Uhuru and Raila were the aggressors towards the battery of top Kenya Kwanza government leaders, then the victims are playing the trauma bonding role. They are looking for the aggressor to save them from the current fires. In trauma bonding, the aggressor makes the victim to feel that behaving well will be rewarded. Therefore, reaching out to Uhuru and Raila, the yesteryear victims are now finding they need to behave themselves so that the aggressor will come to their rescue. This kind of entrapment has several possible scenarios going deeper into the second year of the Kenya Kwanza government.

I am much more interested in the scenarios where the poor will suffer unintended effects if only to give the political trauma bonding a positive interpretation.

Political push-and-pull games are okay. None of us would expect politics to be a wedding ground. However, any political behaviour that leaves the less fortunate in society worse off is not worthy of praise. The political trauma bonding we are into throws a large duvet over questions on the high cost of living. The government has not produced any persuasive justifications for why the cost of living rises every day.

By appearing to worry about their own healing following the internal political indigestion, the government is being unfair to millions of people who are struggling to get basics. We should not unjustifiably walk past the high cost of living which is a direct responsibility of the government in power. This should not be a co-burden with the Opposition. If anything, the Opposition should gravitate the wheels of justice to question the legitimacy of a government that cannot provide meaningful explanations as to why the cost of living is unusually high.

It was argued in the previous regime that the office of the Deputy President is enjoined to the office of the President and therefore if one were to go before the term expiry the other goes as well. I don't think it is sensible to force discordant top-level office bearers to hang together under forced conditions just to see off the four years of the Kenya Kwanza regime. But here we are.

The negative effect of the background fights will be poor policy directions, low-level government service delivery, and intensified corruption to keep positions leading to moments of on and off open rebellion. The political trauma bonding in which the victims - so to speak - are looking for Uhuru and Raila to come to their rescue masks a very important question: Who is in power? Who actually decides on resource distribution to all taxpayers?

-Dr Mokua is Executive Director, Loyola Centre for Media and Communication