History has taught us that in many scenarios of revolution, one oppressive system gets replaced with another. The African Americans, for instance, did not envision that slavery would be replaced with Jim Crow and the prison industrial complex. After the American Civil War was fought over the question of slavery and won in favour of the North and its decision to do away with it, they did not envision that the former slave states, suddenly finding a huge gap in their access to free labour, would resort to arresting Black people en masse for minor infractions or no crime at all, and putting them in chain-gangs to work the plantations for free as prisoners of the State. Slavery had been abolished, but freedom had not yet been won.
Similarly, it was impossible to envision that the protests of the past few months, whose purpose was to functionally improve the lives of Kenyans by easing their financial burden, would consolidate power in such a manner as to completely stifle dissent within government, resulting in changes as drastic as we have been witnessing lately. On the one hand, great progress was made over a relatively short period of time. The Finance Bill of 2024 that had so agitated the masses was done away with. Cabinet was dissolved with the aim of bringing in people who were better suited for their dockets and, even though the movement had argued that Cabinet should be dissolved in order to make it leaner, it still appeared that some progress was being made.
Unfortunately, it was in the dissolution and reconstitution of the Cabinet that the movement for progress would find itself arrested. Not only were some of the same faces brought back through a reshuffle of positions, but the government ensured that some of the most vocally oppositional voices were also granted a seat at this table. Ostensibly, whilst the voices of the masses were not silenced on the streets, those voices that backed them in the Legislature and other high offices were bought and silenced. Even Raila Odinga, whom many had mistakenly looked to for guidance in the movement for liberation, once again shook hands with the enemy and secured himself some late-stage career progression.
All of these events would not be too worrying in the larger scheme of the movement if we were not witnessing, in real time, the capture of the Legislature by the Executive. When history looks back on 2024, it will pinpoint the moment of capture as having begun with the impeachment of the deputy President (DP). His innocence or lack thereof not being in question, the nature of the impeachment process itself was shocking to witness. Members of the Parliament, who otherwise are nowhere to be found when important Bills need to be discussed, showed up in droves at the crack of dawn and were happy to stay on until midnight to ensure that Rigathi Gachagua was impeached. Members who have behaved in ways unbecoming of their seats quoted the Bible and spoke extensively of the need to have widows protected. And, as the circus drew to a close, they voted nearly unanimously to impeach the DP, and arose early the next morning to accept the nomination of his replacement.
This was in fact not the second time that it appeared the Legislature had taken off its collective thinking hat, as the Finance Bill itself was also unquestioningly passed by Parliamentarians in the ruling party. The difference between the two instances is that while at the time the Finance Bill was debated there was some semblance of opposition. Today there is none. That the impeachment of the DP was so easily successful has opened the door for the exploitation of the Legislature to enact bad laws. Currently, Senator Samson Cherargei, emboldened by the endless possibilities of a united Legislature, has brought forward a Bill that would extend the terms of office of nationally elected representatives. It would not be farfetched, after the events of two weeks ago, to believe that a motion such as this one, and who knows which others in the future, will easily pass.
Ms Gitahi is an international lawyer