Greetings, Ladies and Gentlemen, especially those of you in the ruling Kenya Kwanza coalition:
I do sincerely hope you have sufficiently recovered from that close call on Tuesday, June 25, when angry Kenyan youths broke through the security barrier and stormed your hallowed parliamentary grounds, baying for your blood. It must have been quite humbling, having to escape through the underground august ‘tunnel of parliamentary privilege’, like scared sewer rats!
Honourable members, I am aware you are currently on recess, and in football parlance, you couldn’t wait for the final whistle, so that you could depart the central point of focus on Parliament Road, where Gen Z protesters could easily find all of you. I am told, however, that these young men and women, who could be the grandchildren to some of you, have decided to “Occupy Everywhere”, including your rural homes, until they can find you, so you can answer to your perceived failure to represent their aspirations.
Let’s backtrack a bit to the three parliamentary sittings preceding that fateful Tuesday, that is, from June 18 to 20. You know, it took a shocking level of arrogance and impunity for you to have hurried the Finance Bill 2024 through the Second Reading and into its final phase, taking the vote as these young Kenyans besieged the House, chanting right outside Parliament’s perimeter fence. At this stage, it required one person, or even a number of people, on the majority side, to gather enough wisdom to just advise that, at the very least, the house adjourns to discuss the happenings right outside the premises, and subsequently seek a better path for the Bill.
Honourable members, Ladies and Gentlemen, you didn’t consider this because you had found false safety both in your parliamentary numbers and the patronage of the occupant of State House. You failed to contend with the power of the people and their inherent ability to exercise it directly
As you fled into the tunnel like rabbits from marauding dogs, seeking distance from the House whose grounds you swagger about with nonchalant authority daily, the great irony was lost on you: the people you were running scared from were the same on whose behalf you had just purported to affirm the Finance Bill 2024. How sad.
It is instructive, Honourable Members, that the young Kenyans who invaded Parliament to evict you were chanting, “Ruto Must Go,” and not “Parliament Must Go.” This is important, because it speaks to their belief that as the National Assembly, you have become a mere appendage of the Executive and the President, failing miserably to hold the both to account. In fact, quite a large number of Kenyans are convinced you barely read the bills and motions that you vote on, opting instead to vote for whatever State House desires. As voting robots, you have turned the third arm of government into a theatre of the absurd.
Because you lack ears, Dear Members, you probably fled too fast to hear the youths say their problem is not only being overtaxed, but also that you, their representatives, live luxurious lives, in contrast with those you represent. Many of you are on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, TikTok and such other apps, where you flaunt wealth, with obscene displays of opulence. The youths can see your full car yards, boasting a many of the latest machines, as well as the mansions you are building all over the land.
You violate the Agikuyu saying, “Tiga kuonia Ngai ndaa” (“Do not boastfully show God your full stomach”) But since Gen Z are not as foolish as you previously thought, they have connected all this opulence with your salaries and concluded that all the luxuries, as well as the large harambee donations you carry in sacks every weekend, is not your money but public money. The multi-million-shilling titanium watches and the pricey footwear that you don, like Middle Eastern princes, can’t be from your salaries either. On that score, and in the eyes of the new generation of Kenyans, you have lost the moral high ground to be determinants of taxation policy.
Honourable members, it was quite comical that those of you who had just voted ‘Yes’ to the Finance Bill 2024, when summoned to State House soon afterward, for the President to announce its complete withdrawal, applauded heartily. That inauspicious moment was a true manifestation of an old era in which the President was farmer number one, athlete number one, teacher number one and decision-maker number one.
No scene better captures your dereliction of duty than that, and it will be etched in infamy for ages. You willingly gave away your mandate to the Executive. If you had even a small ounce of respect left in you after the State House scene, you should have headed straight to major media houses to announce your resignations.
I have seen the clownish and comical apology messages from some of you doing the rounds on social media. At least one of you, putting on the most sombre face since creation, has even printed t-shirts bearing his apology. I was about to mention the lack of creativity, but then I remembered the countless, poorly done, boda boda sheds and school pit latrines, bearing your names, printed in large font visible from space, supposedly sponsored by NGCDF. I give you a pass on creativity and proper messaging. But you may want to know that these kids are now also doing calculations on just how much the NGCDF should do for the people, and will be holding you to account at the constituency level, too. I wonder if CDF offices also have underground tunnels.
Honourable Members, the young people of Kenya have done something that we have never seen before. Their invasion of Parliament, the mobilisation for the protests, their coordination and sheer grit are unprecedented. They have got you and other lords of impunity in both the Legislature and the Executive cowering in fear. What you need now are not comical apologies. You need to return to the fundamentals of their issues raised by Gen Z and the concept of representation. The Finance Bill 2024 was just the ultimate trigger for what have been two years of riding roughshod over Kenyans. Remember the Housing Levy? No matter what Kenyans said then, you and the President enthusiastically bulldozed it through, leaving a bewildered nation wondering where this new breed of dictatorship had landed from.
While you’re at it, Dear members, find time to apologise to the other House, the Senate. You might have noticed from footage of the invasion of Parliament Buildings that given the direction the wave of protesters entered from, the Senate was the easiest target, and suffered the biggest damage. Yet the Finance Bill 2024 wasn’t being considered there. There is now a credible reason to push for the two houses to be domiciled in totally different buildings, so that citizens who may have a bone to pick with one do not confuse it with the other. To be fair, there is a level of impunity in the Senate, too, but not comparable to the hubris of the National Assembly.
Meanwhile, on behalf of Kenyans of goodwill, may I wish you a thoughtful period of reflection as you prepare to return from recess to confront this new world order in the nation!
Political commentator