We'll never keep quiet until Ruto government does the right thing

Politics in Kenya must strictly be appreciated for what it should be - authoritative allocation of resources. It is therefore very disingenuous when the political class try to marry politics and religion whenever they want to mischievously claim the high moral ground. Let it go on record that all those opposed to how Kenya Kwanza is running the country are not possessed with evil spirits. They are active citizens who are weighing the political rhetoric against the hard economic realities and can tell that their interests are clearly secondary to the greed of the political class.

That the political class are back lecturing us about Adani deals is the most poignant revelation of their true colours; a case of good intentions being at cross purposes with serpentine nature. Those of us who clapped for the President, must take back our claps. The cancellation was clearly not done as a consequence of thoughtful introspection. Maybe it was sneaked into that well written speech by some skillful speechwriter who had accurately read the mood of the country. We were told this past week that our opinions don’t matter much for we have never even been to an airport.

Well, truth the is, majority of us have never been to any airport. But it’s not out of lack of ambition. Like the politicians, we would love to globe-trot—cut business deals in Paris over a glass of champagne and go to UNGA to expand our social capital donning the latest Aviator watch. But see our fate. Look at us. In the words of Bob Seger in his song ‘Sunspot baby’, we are “stranded like a dog out in the yard”. There is no opportunity at all.

Medical interns die at their workstations. Many graduates are forced to seek refuge in cheap liquor to the detriment of their future and the country. This regime, as a consequence, expects us to clap for it. It expects us to get into tribal-baiting. We need not turbo-charge ethnic contempt against any section of this country. It’s President Julius Nyerere who famously remarked that it’s the woefully ideologically bankrupt that resort to religious and ethnic mobilisation and still masquerade as political leaders.

We must tell the President the truth. For in so doing our hearts may be at peace. Every government the world over has to be opposed unless it’s a dictatorship. But in a multiparty democracy, we must tell him that if it was our party in power, we would have handled the question of access to healthcare in fundamentally different manner and style. We would not have contemplated placing the country’s airport and electricity transmission grid into the hands of foreign non-state actors, particularly in the day and age of cyberwarfare as a tool in global terrorism.

We must also tell him that while his new-found political sweethearts can insult us the much they care, we the people will not make any decision based on fear. As long as he remains president on account of a democratic process, we will boldly but respectfully engage his administration and where we think they are missing the mark, we will speak. Our speaking out stems from the fact that Dr Ruto is personally responsible in part for the poor state of affairs in this country. The state-sponsored marginalisation that successive regimes have presided over, have taken place when Ruto was either the blue-eyed boy of the system or was the ‘system’ himself.

For example, Eurobond, that remains one of the worst economic blind spots in this country, was executed when Ruto was the party leader of the principal partner in the Jubilee coalition, the URP. He was not only second in command, he had control of more than a quarter of the House. From such a man, we want nothing but assurance that our future is not in our past; that government can still be force for good. But if they will choose insolence over reasoned debate, then they haven’t seen anything yet

Mr Mwaga the convener Inter-Parties Youth Forum. [email protected]