A section of youth during the Meru Diaspora job fair at Kinoru Stadium in Meru County. [File, Standard] Are the youth led protests against the government justified? Is a question many people locally and abroad have grappled with for the last one year. The young and not so young men and women that were tasked with the responsibility of sustaining pro government online propaganda have not helped one bit. The government bloggers and their masters framed the protests first as an “ethnic entitlement” issue. They then dismissed it as charade of content creators who were not interested in how their…
Author: By Kidi Mwaga
Youth during the past demonstrations. [File, Standard] During the burial of President John F Kennedy, Lyndon B Johnson famously remarked: “I would give everything I have not to be standing here today”. In that moment of profound national grief, Johnson’s words underscored that compromise is a critical facet in leadership. I want the people of Kenya to pose and ask, “what would William Ruto compromise for the sanity of the nation?” Last week alone we lost 31 lives. In a country that is not under foreign invasion, we lose tens of people every fortnight and we don’t hear the Commander-in-Chief…
Former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua during the unveiling of his Democracy for Citizens Party (DCP) in Nairobi, on May 15, 2025. He has been associated with the politics of “cousins.” [Collins Oduor, Standard] Kenya remains stacked in a place of so much political darkness. We have dug ourselves into an economic, political and spiritual hole. We defied every logic, every good counsel and the sad reality is that, if we don’t re-examine our ways, the path ahead will still be a steep climb. Anyone who has been a consumer of this column, knows without a doubt that our weakness here…
Mourners escorting the body of slain teacher Albert Ojwang to their home in Homa Bay County, on July 3, 2024. [Michael Mute, Standard] Albert Camus, a thinker and writer of the 20th century, once said, “in such a world of conflict, a world of victims and executioners, it’s the job of thinking people not to be on the side of executioners”. In a country that boasts one of the most progressive constitutions globally, we must pose and ask, who has the right to decide who gets a bullet and who gets a trial? When nobody is guaranteed the right to…
A protester being roughed up by anti-riot police during the Justice for Albert Ojwang demonstrations. [Edward Kiplimo, Standard] When Francis Fukuyama described the end of the Cold War as the “end of history” I guess no one imagined just how much the unemployed underclass would challenge the political order. Today, everyone tries to understand the Gen Z phenomenon in our politics and proffer solutions. But this is simply a moment of new thinking. The triumph of democracy, symbolised by the collapse of the Berlin Wall, should have marked the commencement of the golden age. Central to the idea of…
Youth during Gen Z anniversary protests in Kisii, on June 25, 2025. [Sammy Omingo, Standard] Our economy is on the back foot. Our confidence in the Kenyan promise has tanked more than at any other time. The citizens are scarred and scared. Nobody feels safe. Everyone is wondering if they are next. The schism between the government and the people continues to widen. “We are dying” seems to be the collective wounded cry of a generation. We decry very high taxes, broken public healthcare system, broken public transport system, broken public school system and the broken politics is the icing…
While speaking on one of the popular political podcasts in the country, Prof Vincent Okoth Ongore, a scholar on ownership structure and associate professor at Technical University of Kenya reminded the nation that the future of a nation is never entirely dependent on the whims of an individual but on the collective will of the people. In the electric atmosphere of political competition, it might appear that the ordinary citizen is helpless. Those on car rooftops spewing vitriol might look like the ultimate determinants of our fate. But in all the epochs when we have made right turns as a…
A couple of weeks ago, long before the Finance Bill was published, social media was awash with how the Finance Bill 2025 is such a punitive document. So many Kenyans swallowed the ruse, hook line and sinker and even leaders, whom you would expect to know better, begun sharing the content of a non-existent bill. This revealed an interesting phenomenon in our society today. Social media and artificial intelligence has led to rapid growth of the “mob” that James Madison warned about in his writings in Federalist Paper 10. There is a sectarianism in our public discourse which remains a…
President William Ruto and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping inspect a guard of honor at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, on April 24, 2025. [PCS] At a time like this last year, what was on everyone’s lips was President William Ruto’s impending visit to the US. There was an excitement about it in the corridors of power. Some overzealous government mandarins even suggested that the much-publicised state visit was a testament that Kenya was the ‘prefect’ of Africa. At that time, there was muted anti-China rhetoric in Nairobi. A year later and with the change of…
Siaya County Governor James Orengo when he appeared before the Cohesion and Equal Opportunities at Bunge Towers, Nairobi. [File, Standard] As Christian all over the world gather in places of worship to reflect on the persecution, death and ascension of Christ, may we collectively as Kenyans take time to reflect on what must be our irreducible minimum in the next elections. Truth is, the folks who took over the reins of power after President Moi, have proven that modernity is certainly not synonymous with development. The political economy they have engendered might look modern but undeveloped. Access to education continues…
Gen Z protests were sparked by punitive taxes in the Finance Bill 2024. [File, Standard] When Mark Twain remarked that “a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes”, he probably had moments such as these in his mind. Our governance, both processes and institutions are under serious assault as the citizens are inundated with half-truths and outright lies. The bulk of it is calculated to inflame anger and despondency in a manner that would make the populace unsettled. I say this with reference to the budgeting process. A year ago we…