President William Ruto and Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga at State House in Mombasa County. [PCS] William S Ruto seems presently to be politically happy, happier than he was some weeks ago. It is not because he has acquired enough new wealth to put him in the top bracket, the billionaires club, or has contributed new knowledge to botany. He is happy because his domestic political rivals are in stages of advanced confusion while his UDA and ODM cheer leaders appear to be on the upswing. His concern is on whether the UDA/ODM union can be sustained, without prominent players defecting to other parties that…
Author: By Macharia Munene
President William Ruto. [Courtesy/PCS] Power comes in many guises, is hard to gain, and easy to lose. It has three foundations; possession of requisite knowledge and competence, ability to retain the trust/confidence and obedience of the ruled, and the use of common sense in balancing the other two. To have those foundations, rulers often appeal to the divine to legitimise their rule and as long as the ruled accept the divine connection, the rulers are safe. To justify his being king, for instance, David had Hebrew oral traditions put into writing in ways that made past divine actions preparations for…
ODM leader Raila Odinga during an interview with The Standard on February 28, 2023. [Stafford Ondego, Standard] Postcolonial Kenya has had colorful politicians, among them being Jomo Kenyatta who believed in prioritizing politics over other concerns. He started his political adventures in the 1920s, acquired international and Pan-Africanist repute in the 1930s, condoned anti-colonial oaths in the 1940s, and had a mysterious role in the Mau Mau Movement. His greatest recruit was a Nyanza businessman called Jaramogi Oginga Odinga. He emerged from jail, with a title of ‘Mzee’, as Prime Minister and then President in the 1960s; Jaramogi was close…
A Chinese military band takes part in a parade marking the 80th anniversary of victory over Japan and the end of World War II, in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on September 3, 2025. [AFP] Parades, whether military or civilian, serve three main purposes. First, they provide socio-political value by offering free entertainment to the public. People enjoy watching new security gadgets, uniformed personnel marching in unison, and appearances by various dignitaries. Second, parades serve to reassure citizens of their nation’s security. Third, they signal to the rest of the world that a country is not weak, that it can defend itself…
US President Donald Trump. [AFP] Adam Smith, a Scotsman, and Karl Marx, a German, are probably the two best known political economists in the Conceptual West. They lived a few decades apart and each had profound impact on how countries and people ran their economies and politics. They both had something to say about mercantilism which Smith, in his book, Wealth of Nations, castigated as being wasteful rather than being wealth creating. To Marx, mercantilism simply prepared the way for exploitative capitalism to replace feudalism by way of the merchant class. In his pamphlet, Communist Manifesto and later The Capital, Marx called…
President William Ruto and ODM leader Raila Odinga during a meeting at State House, Mombasa. [File, Standard] There was a ‘conclave’ at Karen attended by some Members of Parliament from Raila Odinga’s ODM and William Ruto’s UDA. The meeting was partly meant to sideline Rigathi Gachagua’s ability to grab media headlines. But it turned into a national spectacle in which MPs unexpectedly turned against Raila and Ruto. Although Ruto defeated Raila in 2022, the two became bosom buddies at the expense of Gachagua, the former deputy president. Initially, Gachagua ignored warnings that Raila and Ruto would gang up against him…
Chairperson of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) Dr Erastus Edung Ethekon during the swearing in of the commission at Supreme Court on July 11, 2025. [Kanyiri Wahito, Standard] After two years wasted in political mischief, Kenya finally has an Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC). It is relatively youngish, energetic and ready for the difficult task ahead. The challenge before Erastus Edung Ethekon and his commissioners is not the short time in which to deliver elections and boundary delimitations. It is in rebuilding the lost trust among Kenyans in institutions and structures. He has a sharp presence of…
Author professor Ngugi wa Thiong’o during an interview with the standard on 7/2/19. [File, Standard] Ngugi wa Thiong’o departed the earth after 87 years of productive life of writing and popularising the African ways. He then disappointed his global followers, mainly Africans in the continent and the diaspora, by getting himself cremated in America, the headquarters of post-modern colonialism at times called globalisation. He inspired and disappointed, taught and de-taught, and in cremation he went against the very African ways that he had stressed on earth. He did not allow his global followers to mourn the African way. Prof Ngugi…
There is threat from Artificial Intelligence (AI) ‘deep fake’ warriors. They are good at what ‘futurist’ Chris Karanja terms ‘face mapping’ which enables them to make fabrications that sound like truth. Since there are elements of truth in each ‘deep fake, it takes sharp, alert, and probably trained minds to detect a particular ‘deep fake’. As a tool of modern warfare, along with faceless drones, AI is part of the complicated defence cyber domain whose difficulties include detecting perpetrators of various attacks. Being of two opposite potentials, threat and benefit, to society, AI worries policymakers. AI warriors target the public’s…
When the late Pope Francis waved to the crowd during the weekly general audience at St Peter’s Square in The Vatican on November 20, 2024. [AFP] Pope Francis died on Easter Monday, April 21, 2025, having done several things which, in hindsight, imply he had a premonition of his likely departure from the earth. He had been bedridden for more than a month and his doctors preferred his taking things easy. He chose to come out and enjoy Easter Sunday with the people at St. Peter Square, giving audience to US Vice-President J.D. Vance, greeting worshippers and blessing babies. His death at…
DRC President Felix Tshesekedi. [File, Standard] Massad Boulos, US President Donald Trump’s advisor on Africa and the Middle East, was in Africa to meet Presidents Felix Tshesekedi in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda’s Paul Kagame, Uganda’s Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, and Kenya’s William Ruto. He also stopped in Paris where Nigerian President Bola Tinubu was receiving treatment. His real interest, however, was Congo which is geographically so big and rich that it seems like two countries in one; Eastern and Western Congo. Since the US is interested in Congolese strategic minerals, Boulos and Tshesekedi reached an understanding on Americans accessing…
From left: Founding father Jomo Kenyatta, Presidents Daniel arap Moi and Mwai Kibaki. [File, Standard] Some documents outlast others and become sources of inspiration or reference. They are results of serious people giving thought to pressing issues of the day. Many documents, whether religious or secular, refer to governance and are used to justify conflicting arguments. Invoking the divine, a practice that goes back to the beginnings of organised living in which people agree to be ‘civil’ to each other, helps rulers to rule without questioning. It happened in Kenya in both colonial and post-colonial times. In post-colonial Kenya,…
Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) General Charles Kahariri during the ground breaking ceremony of the KDF Modern Housing unit at 3KR Military barracks in Lanet Nakuru county on May 18, 2024. [Kipsang Joseph, Standard] Rarely do security chiefs step forward to explain themselves to the public or trigger national debates. But at a recent event at the National Intelligence Research University (NIRU), National Intelligence Service (NIS) Director General Noordin Haji and Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) General Charles Kahariri did just that. Also present were Attorney General Dorcas Oduor, Law Society of Kenya President Faith Odhiambo, former Cabinet Secretary Amina…
Maasai Mara University is reviving the culture of promoting intellectualism through undertaking public lecture series. [File, Standard] There was time when universities were citadels of ideas and engaged the public on issues of the day. They had intellectuals and a culture of intellectualism which, as Ali Mazrui would claim, were fascinated with ideas. In that culture, when not in class pushing students to be critical thinkers, lecturers productively spent time in one of three university places. First, they were in offices musing about fresh thoughts while looking at the ceiling and waiting for students to consult them on some complicated…