Ruto's government should cease and desist from criminalising dissent

“When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty.”

This quote is attributed to one of the founding fathers and the third president of the United States of America Thomas Jefferson, who lived between 1743 and 1826. I can deduce two theories from Mr Jefferson’s presupposition.

The first theory is that governments world over are expected to exist for the singular purpose of serving, defending, providing citizens with conducive environment to prosper, and formulating progressive policies in the best interest of citizens.

The second theory is that governments the world over are and must be subjects to the people. Since it is the people who install and uninstall governments from power, the sovereignty of the country belongs to them.

It is against that backdrop that I assertively conclude that if indeed the sovereignty of the country belongs to the people, governments are not only obligated by the law and logic to respect the people but must fear “we the people”-under the principle of the rule of the majority.

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Nevertheless, this quote popped up in my mind recently as I reminisced upon the current happenings in Kenya in the context of arbitrary arrest, detention, and subsequent murder of Albert Ojwang, a resident of Homa Bay County.

The late Ojwang’ was murdered by the same police officers who were supposed to protect him and ensure that he is treated fairly within constitutional parameters.

Sadly, the murder of Ojwang is not an isolated incident. Cases of abductions, detention without trial, and extrajudicial killings of citizens who exercise dissent and hold divergent opinions against the government have risen exponentially under President William Ruto’s administration.

According to an annual report that was released by the Freedom House, an American organisation that is devoted to the support and defence of democracy and human rights around the world, Kenya was categorised as “partly free”, essentially defining the country as a semi-tyrannical state.

In short, for Kenya it is “Not yet Uhuru.” The main concerns in the report were state sponsored disappearances and extrajudicial killings of citizens.

The report indicated that a staggering number of 159 innocent citizens were either disappeared never to be seen again or killed in an extrajudicial manner altogether. Of the 159 cases, 104 (65 per cent) are attributed to the police and 55 (35 per cent) to enforced disappearances, which are mostly committed by the same security apparatus.

Unfortunately, the victims were disappeared because they held contrary opinions to those of the Ruto administration. Their main mistake was either to express a written or spoken dissent against the government.

It is imperative to let Ruto’s administration to know that dissent is a God-given gift that cannot be taken away by mere mortals. In fact, from the biblical perspective, God permitted dissent from Lucifer. Despite God’s immense authority to annihilate Lucifer, also known as Satan, he spared him.

President Ruto’s administration should learn from God. More importantly, if harnessed properly, dissent is a gift because it helps those in power to correct mistakes and spruce up the government’s image.

Secondly, dissent is the mother of the Kenyan Constitution. It is the chief cornerstone upon which democracy is built.

By and large, it is tomfoolery to expect all citizen to think monolithically in resonance with government officials. Setting that expectation leads to criminalising dissent.

Kenya must be allowed to become a fully-fledged free country where citizens express themselves without fear of reprisals. If anything, it is the government that must fear the people.