The recent coup d’etat in Niger that toppled the democratically elected government of president Mohamed Bazoum has highlighted a disturbing trend emerging in several West African countries: the resurgence of unconstitutional means to bring about regime change. In the last three years, there have been military takeovers in Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali and Guinea.
What are our leaders reading? Some may read nothing at all, if you see the bare desks and shelves in the offices some parade on Twitter and Instagram.
Many, though, read the softer stuff of motivational literature. I
One of the most significant aspects of the Saba Saba protests this month was that for the first time since the pro-democracy protests of the 1990s, Kenyans were rallying around issues rather than personalities or ethnic groups, in this case, punitive taxes and the commensurate rise in the cost of living. This demonstrates that Kenyans have finally reached a level of political maturity where issues, rather than personalities or ethnic groups, determine the support leaders get.
The totem of private property was raised early after independence. Vast farms and ranches were transferred to our new elite, together with the large populations of wildlife upon them. Near where I live there are still a few multi-thousand-acre private wildlife sanctuary ranches. But development is winnowing the animal numbers at an alarming rate. One used to encounter zebra on my road every day. That’s a rumour today.
The intention behind people pleasing is usually a very strong, almost alarm-like need to keep the peace, even if nothing about the situation logically calls for such extremes.
I do not seek to get into the pros and cons of the recently enacted Finance Act by the Kenya Kwanza government, even though it elicits a remark or more. Rather, it is the emotion that the bill – and later on the Act – has aroused across the country that most pricks my curiosity. In my view, there have been fewer times when national discourse has been characterized by great animation like has been the case as regards this piece of legislation (first proposed, then passed, and now challenged in court).
The Finance Act 2023 also has colonial undertones that should make Kenyans very nervous. “The levy to enable more Kenyans to own their own houses is morphing into something akin to the obnoxious colonial ‘hut tax’,” stated an editorial in the Daily Nation. The tax that the newspaper is referring to is the Native Hut Tax, introduced in 1901, when the British wanted to consolidate their power over this land and its people. All huts used as a dwelling were expected to pay an annual tax.
Uganda is one among around 30 African countries that have criminalised homosexuality, but no country in Africa has passed such a draconian law against homosexuals. Depending on how the law is interpreted, parents of gay children could find themselves locked up for harbouring and protecting a homosexual, and clinics providing HIV treatment or counselling to gay patients could have their licenses revoked. The law has rightly been condemned by human rights organisations around the world for its severity. It will likely lead to an exodus of homosexuals from the country.
This portion of our population has concerns that might be incomprehensible to city dwellers who daily consume the food they produce, and visit them less frequently. To them, it is crazy that the entitled city denizen would have them produce food below cost, to keep prices at their supermarkets low. It is also strange to them how much focus there has been on maandamano of the destructive kind in Nairobi and Kisumu since the date with destiny of 20 March 2023. Were they to be asked, they would echo the cost of living complaint rather than the electoral injustice claims of Azimio La Umoja One Kenya, I think. After all, they too are now buying a 2 kg packet of sifted maize flour at over KSh 205 – ten years ago this would have cost KSh 110.
I was only two days in, too early in the game for me to land a jab with any precision, let alone successfully block any attacks. Giving up this early would mean I didn’t really have to suffer the indignity of failure because I wouldn’t have given boxing any real chance. I could then tick it off my list as one more thing that’s “just not for me”. Like swimming. Or learning French. Or what sometimes I want to do with writing.
