President William Ruto (right) and United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken at Blair House in Washington DC on May 24, 2024.
United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken informed the whole world, via his official website, that two days ago he picked up his phone and said some things to President William Ruto. He wasn’t asking him about the price of a can of termites at Chwele market or the strength of the windsock at Pap Kadundo stadium.
The call was short and sweet: that America has been putting their two eyes on the news coming from the Gen Z protests in Kenya, and something needed to change if Kenya and the United States were to continue being friends.
Since the Gen Z clamour for good governance hit a crescendo exactly one month ago, there are things that have happened that are outside the realm of the 2010 constitution that the US government has been itching to remind their friends in Nairobi about.
To begin with, the freedom of assembly has been clobbered by the police and meeting of minds criminalised in public spaces. Despite the Bible saying, in Matthew 18:20, "For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them", the police have been stomping major urban centres battering groups of people every Tuesday and Thursday without seeking to inquire first which Lord’s work they are conspiring to conduct.
This is not the image our forefathers had in mind when they sat at the Bomas of Kenya for months on end putting together a Mother Law that was supposed to provide nourishment to all, regardless of the height of your relatives or the texture of your voice.
Democratic space
Few countries in Africa can measure up to the expansion of our democratic space and the boundless freedoms we are supposed to enjoy, and this is what made Secretary Blinken blood boil when he saw that someone high up the government food chain is hellbent to taking us back to living in the jungle and fighting with lions for bed space every nightfall.
When the 2010 constitution made it clear that all Kenyans shall enjoy the freedom of expression, state organs responsible for actualizing this instruction was to immediately put into motion a policy environment to breathe life into the letter of the law.
Fourteen years later, instead of giving us an annual scorecard of the mountains they have climbed to get us to the top, they are busy crawling on social media platforms profiling those asking why some public officials are buying one crate of soda at the price of a ticket to heaven. If the 2010 constitution knew it was going to put in trouble those demanding for its full implementation, I am not sure it would have allowed us to pass it with such fanfare.
Just two months ago, President William Ruto became the first African leader to be invited for a state visit to the White House since Oscar Sudi began to read and write. They took him round the land of the free and the brave, showered him in milk and honey, and before we knew it his fans back home started claiming he was the next thing to have ever happened to Pan Africanism since the end of apartheid. For the blue eyed boy of the United States to climb down from being the avatar of Nelson Mandela to the poster image of police brutality, in such a short span, was not only shocking but also worrisome.
In his cable to President William Ruto, Secretary Blinken made it clear of the critical role played by the youth and civil society organisations in healthy democracies, and urged respect for their contributions to Kenya’s development. It is not the first time the United States government is speaking like this to leaders who are tone deaf to the needs of the suffering class and the aspirations of the ambitious demographic group. The wording was diplomatic enough not to sound like a wakeup call but the there was nowhere else the spirit would rather be other than to point at the hand of God scribbling on the wall as it was pointed to King Belshazzar in the Book of Daniel 5:25-28.
All the leaders currently stepping on the necks of young people in Kenya were also youthful at some point in their lives. They might have been born in homes where civil service letters were being written or had to work their way to the top through selling chicken by the roadside, but the constant factor remains – that whenever they felt aggrieved by the mistakes of the ruling class in their time, no one ever sent a lorry of teargas to choke them into abandoning their clamour nor aimed a gun at their temple to splash their brain matter on the streets. For a country that prides itself in being the sanctuary for those fleeing civil strife across the EAC region, the events this past month has exposed us for who we really are and the world now knows our true colours.
Had Secretary Blinken not have stepped forward and made the bold call for the boundary of basic freedoms not to be crossed any further, the number of families weeping for the disappearance of their kin and gnashing their teeth at the brutality of police would have increased tenfold.
Political witch hunt
At the heat of the 2022 campaigns, when tempers were fraying and words became sharper than a steak knife, President Ruto is on record having begged his then boss not to extend his political witch hunt to the inner sanctum of his family as to harm their lives for no reason at all. While the sunroof speech at a roadside rally was meant to evoke sympathy and fish him some considerable votes among Uhuru Kenyatta’s people, those words still ring true; that no child deserve to be brutalised by state machinery for political ends, regardless of their sociopolitical bloodline.
By abducting harmless Kenyans and breaking their bones for sport, the state machinery has taken us back to a country we thought was long dead and invited us to renew the spirit of vigilance for those who will come after us.
On behalf of all Kenyans who have been disoriented with the dark turn of events since last month, we would like to sincerely pass our message of appreciation to Secretary Blinken for reassuring us of the United States commitment to standing with the Kenyan people as we build a more inclusive and prosperous Kenya. During these trying times, Kenyans need all the help we can get to restore the fear of the Lord in the hearts of those dancing on the graves of our young ones who put their lives on the line for us to achieve an optimal state of wellness.
