Who shall we trust? The conundrum that is Kenya’s current political situation.

With each side of the political divide taking turns to take jabs at each other, it is becoming increasingly difficult to figure out who is telling the truth.

The Aftermath of the 2022 General Elections has been nothing short of chaotic. In stark contrast to what was initially expected by many political analysts, the political climate has not died down to date. Five months on and still the Azimio camp won’t accept the outcome of the Presidential election. On the other hand, President Ruto and his political camp are not willing to go down easy and will shoot down the opposition camp any chance they get.

This has been characterized, quite recently, by the fiery exchanges between leaders from both camps. Raila Odinga, in recent political rallies, has most importantly, refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of Ruto’s government and he claims that the August elections were massively rigged. He also accuses Ruto of trying to upend and infiltrate the Electoral Commission (IEBC) to secure his reelection in 2027. He further stipulates that if the current situation persists, then there should be no need to hold the next general elections as the winner will already have been pre-determined.

President Ruto and his allies in government have also not held back on their exchanges with Mr. Odinga. They accuse him of trying to destabilize the current political situation in pursuit of his own selfish political ambitions. They have labeled him a serial loser who could not convince the electorate to elect him to power.

President Ruto has also called Raila out for being manipulative claiming that he is trying to find a way to strong-arm into a power-sharing arrangement much as he did in the Grand Coalition Government under President Kibaki as well as the so-called ‘Handshake’ with President Uhuru.

Therefore, this bitter stand-off has necessitated action from both ends with Raila increasingly holding political rallies and barazas to fan the flames of his ideas to the population. Ruto’s government has swiftly reacted by introducing measures to slow down and disorient Raila’s camp by recruiting some of Raila’s generals in the lesser political parties from the Azimio coalition into the Kenya Kwanza camp. Recently, Ruto cracked the whip on Raila’s efforts by introducing ‘tax reforms’, a move aimed at targetting the affluent financiers of Raila’s efforts.

Former President Uhuru has been left in the crosshairs of both political outfits. Upon the conclusion of the August elections and the swearing-in of President Ruto, Uhuru seemed to have finally come to terms and peacefully relinquished power. The new President subsequently appointed him to a top diplomatic role, as a peace envoy to the Great Lakes region of Africa.

He even retired from his role as Azimio’s chairman, which despite the fact that it was a requirement by law, was perhaps proof of better things to come for the Kenya Kwanza camp. However, when Raila and his Azimio compatriots refused to back down, Uhuru seemed to jump right back in where he’d left, continuously acknowledging the fact that he recognized Raila as the legitimate President of the Republic.

Nevertheless, this didn’t win him any favors from the Azimio camp. Raila’s footsoldiers, particularly led by one Babu Owino, charge Uhuru with going into bed with the enemy and trying to play both sides. They have challenged him to resign from the role he received from President Ruto and come down to the streets to demonstrate with the rest of Raila’s footsoldiers against the incumbent government.

However, following the brazen attacks on Uhuru’s personal family including his own mother, former First Lady Mama Ngina Kenyatta, many Azimio politicians have come to his aid telling those in Kenya Kwanza to back off from pursuing her just to score political points. Mama Ngina has also dared the government to auction her property if their claims that she pays no taxes are true.

Kenya’s political situation is becoming increasingly divided and polarized, not particularly because of necessarily any differences in ideology but instead because of the political identity built around political leaders. However, examining the situation more keenly reveals a deeper pattern of a so-called systemic divide between the have and the have-nots, with each side claiming to support their political leader because they feel that he fights for their rights better.

The Kenya Kwanza coalition and particularly UDA the ‘big daddy’ party in the political outfit, was elected on a mantra of fighting for the well-being of the hardworking low and middle-income demographic responsible for building the economy, the so-called ‘hustlers’. This coupled with a self-declared war against the ‘dynasty families’ who had the economy in ‘chokehold’ was enough to woo the electorate to vote for them come August 9th, 2022.

The Azimio Coalition on the other hand claims to be the true representation of the typical Kenyan. Their main campaign slogan was the unification of diversity, a characteristic witnessed in the coagulation of many political parties from all over the country into their coalition outfit. Azimio promises economic prosperity for all, from the bottom to the top as that is the only way to guarantee economic growth for a country as a whole.

We have a famous adage in Swahili that says, ‘Ndovu wawili wakisongana ziumiazo ni Nyika’ (When two elephants jostle, it is the grass that suffers). Many of us ordinary Kenyans have been left to our own devices even as we watch our economic situation as a country continue to plummet.

According to estimates by the IMF, Kenya’s economic growth is expected to plummet down to only about 2.4% this year as opposed to numbers as high as 7-8% in the pre-COVID days. A slow recovery from the pandemic as well as the shockwaves from the Russia-Ukraine war are partly to blame for the same.

The tax reforms introduced by President Ruto in a bid to raise the revenue stream for the government have had the inadvertent effect of raising the prices of basic commodities. There is thus less spending and this is contributing to increased poverty levels among the poor. The current drought in Kenya which is the worst it has been in 40 years, following four consecutive dry seasons in the Horn of Africa region is also to blame for the current strain being put on the Kenyan Economy.

All in all, Kenyans have been put on a political rollercoaster for far too long. Politics is always unending and it can easily get distracting really quickly. It has the ability to draw attention from more pressing issues that require fastidious solutions and to say that Kenya has more pressing issues than politics would be an understatement. Every five-year electoral cycle has a habit of unnecessarily dragging out and thus taking up time and resources that would otherwise be reinvested elsewhere. The political mileage that is eaten up by these politicians each trying to prove their case would be better implemented in deliberating on policies meant for the wellbeing of the country.

If Kenya wishes to move to the next frontier and become a developed country, we first have to develop mature politics. Many developed nations with sustainable political systems (quite unlike the polarized nature of politics in the USA and UK) such as the Scandinavian Nations of Denmark and Norway, put their focus on setting up politics geared towards improving the quality of life of their individual citizens.

Politicians should be servants subservient to the will of the people and not bosses who use their titles to benefit themselves at the risk of everybody else. Kenya, like many other developing nations, will continue to have their political offices hijacked to serve the needs of a few narcissistic and greedy individuals if the criteria for serving as a political leader are not reformed and transformed.