Ground is ripe for a revolution

Social media is a bad gauge for public opinion, but it also remains a decent somewhat reliable source for the assessment of the supermajority or the proletariat.

Ever since Thirdway Alliance leader Ekuru Aukot introduced his Punguza Mizigo Bill, the campaign has received a lot of support from the majority of the hoi polloi: They want a lean, effective and efficient government that addresses their plight instead of enriching the ruling class further.

Of course, as expected, the Bill has received a lot of pushback from the ruling political class, mainly because it seeks to reduce the number of representation and put a cap of their exorbitant salaries amongst other things.

Last week, the amorphous women’s group comprising of governors Charity Ngilu (Kitui), Anne Waiguru (Kirinyaga) and a host of women legislators presented their views to the Building Bridges Initiative proposing a wider government through a plebiscite that would include a President, a Deputy President, a Prime Minister and two deputy prime ministers.

Their argument was that it should have equal gender representation, which Punguza Mizigo addresses too, albeit leaner. This week, media reports indicated that President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga are crafting an alliance that would include, amongst others Baringo Senator Gideon Moi in the lineup.

There has been an unhealthy obsession about 2022 polls and the Uhuru succession, despite the various attendant issues affecting the nation. In just a fortnight, four leading companies from four different industries have announced massive layoffs resulting in 1,700 job losses. The biggest of them all being the one-time titanic East African Portland Cement Company, which is reportedly laying off 800 of its employees.

The other important issue is health. Just the other day a 65-year-old man from Laikipia county committed suicide after a cancer diagnosis. It was reported that he killed himself because of the despair that is the health industry, which is inaccessible to the supermajority of Kenyans, including him, because it is privatised and to most, dilapidated and non-existent.

Millions, like this man, are in despair, apathy and deep frustration that the easy way out is suicide. He might have felt departed ignored and overlooked because his story and that of millions of Kenyans have been swept under the carpet at the altar of political expediency.

That frustration, which is harboured by millions of Kenyans, is birthing a new consciousness taking root in the country that poverty, maladministration, unemployment and definitely corruption should not be normalised anymore.

More Kenyans are gaining that cognisance of the possibility of a government that is lean and strictly working for them instead of enriching themselves. It is also giving rise to alternative voices to rival and eventually replace the repetitive voices that have dominated the national discourse only for sole political ambitions at the expense of national progress.

Before they know it, a revolution will be ignited and it is nigh. It will be powerful, unforgiving and definitely equalising. The ground is too ripe for one.