This time next week, Kenyans will have decided on change or continuity. If the majority prefer change, President Uhuru Kenyatta will take credit for the turnaround.
Any other decision will show the grip of the past on the psyche of the masses. Deputy President William Ruto will then claim bragging rights for arresting the tides of history.
After six decades of brainwashing by oligarchs, the gullible still believe it is only a Kikuyu or a Kalenjin who can be president. The mindset is associated with myths bandied around by the political and the religious apparatuses of the ancient regime.
Myths such as ‘we’ll rule you forever', 'it’s God who chooses leaders', or 'so and so is a good man but his ethnicity is bad' abound. The learned and the illiterate propagate such jaundices.
The intellectually vulnerable can be excused. But the learned must be condemned for sucking up to vested interests. Reactionary narratives have empowered oligarchs to control the masses, while exploiting their vulnerabilities.
Hope still lingers in spite of retrograde logic. Veterans who refused to buy these retrogressive narratives have soldiered on. Successive generations of progressives have always fought the jaundices of power-grabbers. Some lost their lives in suspicious circumstances.
Pio Gama Pinto, Argwings Kodhek, Tom Mboya, George Morara, JM Kariuki, George Anyona, Robert Ouko, Masinde Muliro, Alexander Muge, Odhiambo Mbai, Chris Msando,and Mutula Kilonzo, among others, died in curious circumstances.
Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Bildad Kaggia, Achieng' Oneko, Paul Ngei, Jean-Marie Seroney, Raila Odinga, Maina wa Kinyatti, Martin Shikuku, Kenneth Matiba and Charles Rubia, among others, were detained for demanding basic freedoms.
Some went into exile: Kiraitu Murungi, Anyang' Nyong'o, Mukhisa Kituyi, Koigi wa Wamwere and Comrade Wafula Buke, among others, are history-makers.
The masses, too, have been resilient. They have persevered brutal economic downturns associated with fiscal scams of Jomo Kenyatta, Daniel arap Moi, Mwai Kibaki and the UhuRuto regimes.
The fortitude of the masses, and their infectious love for peace, has spared Kenya the fate of basket cases such as Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka and Venezuela.
Yet cynical politicians still cry crocodile tears. They glorify the wheelbarrow strata while cruising around in Toyota Land Cruiser V8s and choppers. They then retire to their barricaded, Mbwa Kali mansions for seven-course meals.
The cries for secession by disenfranchised voters from Nyanza, Western, Eastern, Northern Kenya and Coast have been heard. Beneath their silence and uneasy calm, is a yearning for change.
One man saw the danger of the agitation for secession when Raila Odinga was sworn-in at Uhuru Park as the people's president on January 30, 2018. President Uhuru Kenyatta, presidential candidate William Ruto’s boss, read history right.
He understands the power of context. A university colleague, Bwocha Nyagemi Bwocha, considers Uhuru Kenyatta history's agent of change.
Uhuru knows the role Raila Odinga has played in the struggle to liberate Kenya from economic vicissitudes of successive regimes. He decided, deliberately, to redirect the wheels of history.
The new trajectory annoys Uhuru's former Jubilee allies, especially United Democratic Alliance presidential candidate Ruto. He has often denied the stubborn truths of history, even conjuring class diversions – hustlers versus dynasties – to cover up the power relay between the Kikuyu and the Kalenjin.
Uhuru thinks differently. The difference resonates with the rest of Kenya, outside the traditional Agikuyu and Kalenjin enclaves. The exclusivist mindset is about to be broken, as Azimio presidential duo Raila Odinga and Martha Karua scale mounds of ethnic and gender prejudices.
Ruto, however, remains unbowed in his quest to succeed Uhuru, the way Moi replaced pioneer Jomo Kenyatta. Ruto has crisscrossed the country, wielding a burning appetite of entitlement. He claims he is the one who knows how to succeed Uhuru Kenyatta.
He upped his denigration of his boss and Raila Odinga, claiming nobody would stop his march to State House.
History will be made one way or another on August 9. Kenyans of goodwill will decide whether Kenya walks the beaten path Ruto cherishes, or takes the progressive trajectory Uhuru desires.
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