A few weeks before his election on August 9th 2022, President Ruto had launched The Plan, an ambitious economic development manifesto that targeted Mama Mboga, Watu wa Mjengo and Jamaa wa Boda Boda as the drivers of economic development. Indeed, the targeted electorate took Ruto’s bait and supported him to a man, with the hope that they were going to live a better quality of life and that a Ruto-led government was theirs, by all accounts.
it is now a painful reality that the government Ruto leads does not care about what the Mama Mboga, Watu wa Mjengo and Jamaa wa Boda Boda are saying and neither do those given the privilege to serve think the ordinary Kenyan, who is their employer, knows what s/he wants.
The arrogance on display by the Ruto administration political operatives has made things worse for President Ruto who is seemingly unable to control his troops in their rogue trajectory or if he is in charge, as most would want to believe, then he is playing double agent by not calling his house to order because he is the ultimate beneficiary of the goings-on.
Sentiments by a section of UDA legislators, led by Sylvanus Osoro (South Mugirango), the National Assembly Chief Whip, to the extent that State House authorized millions of money to buy MPs to vote for the contentious Finance Bill 2023 (now the Finance Act 2023) reeks of a leadership that is arrogant in proportions that stink to the high Heavens. In advanced democracies, such admission of commission of crime would have been cause for Osoro and others to resign and face criminal investigations.
The uncivilized attack by Trade CS Moses Kuria remains a fresh wound in the public body, among other reckless statements by several UDA MPs and adherents.
But, hey, this is Kenya and the demeanour they are giving Kenyans is “you put in office to do what we what” and that “if you push us to the edge we will use the taxes you have entrusted us to unscrupulously get our way, even if that our way is unpopular”. In backstreet lingo, they say “mtado?” (what will you do).
The arrogance and recklessness demeanour amounts to a rogue clique of politicians, who are drunk with power and are displaying juvenile bravado because they think the power they hold is permanent and which they can deploy abusively. In other words, Wanjiku’s value ended the point they cast their ballot and their knowledge of how they want the country governed evaporated through her head and all the intelligence was exclusively deposited in the heads of the political leaders.
But they are so wrong, going by how the country has in the recent weeks responded to the oppressive demeanour of the State which has attempted to use the police to intimidate citizens. In the past one month, traffic police have faced the wrath of Kenyans and been forced to be on their heels in a fashion similar to what we saw in the early days of the Kibaki regime in 2003. If anybody doubted that a revolution is boiling then last Friday’s Saba Saba protests are the clearest indicator that Kenyans are get agitated by the day and they might be just on the brink of taking to the streets in numbers never witnessed before.
Seeing police take off as protesters pursued them, pelting them with stones in Kisii is not a good sign for the government of the day. Kenyans hopelessness is emboldening them to proportions that this regime may not contain and there can only be one outcome if that were to be the case. Mass shootings by police officers who might choose loyalty to this political players in the event of a mass protest to State House, which is imminent if this administration continues with its present demeanour.
This week’s Maandamano may attract more numbers in more parts of the country including in the so-called UDA strongholds because the biting economic situation does not discriminate based on political affiliation or how one voted.
If this government does not read the writing on the wall and correct itself to the satisfaction of the Kenyan people then they will have to eat the grass as Nebucchadnezzar did in the Bible because their fate is that of a sacrificial lamb being fattened by the gods being slaughtered.
President Ruto has the choice to listen to Kenyans and send out everyone of the rogue allies out of the kitchen so that can reboot his system or continue being beholden to their demands and watch his presidency crumble in his own hands and his ambition of a lasting legacy go up in flames before his own eyes.
It will not be Raila Odinga’s fault as some of his allies are trying to make it seem, neither is it (retired President) Uhuru Kenyatta’s making; Kenyans have a mind of their own and they know how to stop a regime that is not governing as the people demand.
