Ruto, Uhuru political games will set a dangerous precedent
President William Ruto (right) and his predecessor Uhuru Kenyatta.
From the government’s reaction to the ongoing opposition offensive over the rising and unbearable cost of living, it is easy to discern the official policy that is being taken.
The epitome of the ruling thought is: There is no problem in the country. The people are okay and the demonstrators are just a few misguided and reactionary fools incited by the opposition; the opposition is just out to sabotage the duly elected government by unleashing the ‘misguided’ populace to gain power.
It is a great reaction whose reverberation has put the supporters in high mood. It has become a chest-thumping arena when the government has employed a decadent approach to the situation. The government, in panic, has unleashed measures of the past decades just to win a few points.
It has arrested, abducted, opposition politicians and their bodyguards; it has unleashed ‘plain clothes police’ to arrest at will anybody suspected of singing a song that is sweet to its ears; the government and those that feel embedded within, is very happy but it doesn’t seem to comprehend the cost of the Pyrrhic victory.
We are at the hinge of change. Everything now goes, the human rights embedded in our Constitution are easily being gnawed away. We are setting new precedents and those that applaud the reactionary stance are creating a future beast that may devour them in a not-so-distant future.
Never before have we had a former President derided and forced into a response from whence he was quiet. Never before has a sitting President touched the family or economic interest of a predecessor. Even in the height of our political de jure dictatorship, the President never touched the families of those who opposed them. Their families may have only suffered their incarceration.
Draconian laws
Many were detained according to the prevailing draconian laws and later clandestinely apologised to. Even the strong arms of yore had the ability to avoid making future enemies.
We are turning a dangerous page. We are taking – deliberately – a dangerous turn. Many sane and sober voices have called for both the opposition and the government to strive and find a common ground on the prevailing issues.
They seem to be wasting their time; they do not know the great egos in those camps. The loose talk from the government side has always been directed towards former President Uhuru Kenyatta. He has avoided public utterances regarding the ongoing mass demonstrations called by the opposition but he is in the radar of buoyant newcomers into big office who hold grudges unknown to the public.
Kenyatta came out riled on Friday evening following the alleged mistreatment of his family by government operatives. Furious at a raid on his son’s home in Nairobi by people believed to be State agents, he dared his ‘enemies’ in President William Ruto’s administartion to go for him.
Perhaps we are living in denial; perhaps we are closing our eyes to the present weak poison that may coagulate into a very potent cyanide to our society.
Our democratic gains have come from long struggles that were only grabbed through the existing laws while seeking to change them. We got the new Constitution and if we regress in vigilance because we support the status quo, we shall be the heaviest losers.
The freedom of speech, which was the main crux of Kenyan struggles, is now slowly transmuting into a crime. The social media is replete with blatant and hitherto closeted tribalists that only see their ethnic side of the divide; politically sponsored tribal clashes in some areas is taking a toll as we wrangle.
There are voices congratulating police brutality on Kenyans who hold different views from their stance. There are hundreds of public mutinies slowly but surely blooming and even the diaspora is reporting tribal divisions when unity outside is their forte. We are setting a very dangerous precedent and in local parlance, kitaturamba.
