Kenyans, desperate and anxious, have lost trust in institutions because their custodians have abused their offices. There subsequently appears to be an intensified clash of opposing desperadoes. First are officials seeking acceptability while violating the basis of trust. Second are desperate citizens looking for ways out of the current sense of national misery. President William Ruto is also desperate to hold on to slipping power.
Those claiming that things are going well enjoy government largesse, insist that the affordable housing project is thriving, and that inflation is down. Blaming critics for all the ills in the country, some exhibit arrogance and imply that the Raila-Ruto 'co-presidency', also called broad-based government, is here to stay. While they brag about having kicked out Rigathi Gachagua from the deputy presidency, they seemingly were not ready for the negative consequences. Mr Gachagua refused to die politically and became a thorn in Dr Ruto’s political skin.
Ruto had benefited from the 2010 Constitution, despite opposing it, and appeared as if he was unwilling to honour it. With those holding high offices, in the executive and in the legislature not hearing the cries or seeing the suffering of the people, the country has plunged into a crisis of trust. Holders of offices, noted Reverend John Calvin Kamau, violate their oaths. This oath violation added to pain as government officials admitted involvement in abductions, police brutality, crude utterances, and top officials beating the drums of war. The subsequent national dismay went so deep into the people that they nicknamed Ruto ‘Kasongo’ or ‘Kaongo’ or a liar. Gachagua, the most vocal in distrusting Ruto, repeatedly points out the supposed distance between Ruto’s statements and the realities on the ground.
The distrust intensifies the feeling that Ruto, as former Attorney-General Justin Muturi stated, was unfit for office. Those he appointed to high office were seemingly so incompetent that John Mbadi dismissed the Cabinet as a ‘skunk’. Ruto also called his top officials incompetent and it appeared that incompetence was the operating principle. This made Kenyans desperate and partly explains the existing national sense of misery. Mbadi, now Ruto’s money man, reportedly intends to slash funding for the IEBC which implies desire to incapacitate IEBC's ability to conduct elections.
Due to contrived incompetence, Kenya seemingly lost sovereignty to such foreign entities as the World Bank and the IMF. Wealth production went down, the economy nosedived, unemployment skyrocketed, factories closed, investors relocated to other countries, and national revenue collection declined even as taxes shot up. There was also deliberate failure to cater for basic social services in health and education throughout the country. 'Rutocrats', instead, showed rapidly acquired wealth in the midst of growing and grinding poverty and became disoriented from the citizens.
That disorientation catapulted the youth, the Gen Z or Mwai Kibaki’s educational children, to think and ask questions. Stressing the Constitution, rule of law, and national anthem, their success shocked and scared the political class, in and out of government, into sabotaging the youth through goon mobilisation. The purpose of goon mobilisation was seemingly to change the narrative and blame the Gen Zs. The political class, therefore, sounded desperate as it urged Ruto to use the sword as others vowed to import voters, rig the election, and talked of changing the Constitution to remove term limits.
The desperation in the political class clashed with the desperation of regular people looking for ways out of growing misery. An awakened new type of Kenyan demands answers, holds officials accountable, refuses to tolerate heavy handedness, and desperately wants to right the perceived wrongs. This new Kenya is in a clash of desperation with the Ruto officials who are equally desperate to cling to power irrespective of how. This clash of the desperadoes, with more people thinking and asking difficult questions, means that the country is likely to escape from the current state of misery.
