The more the top leadership preaches the BBI gospel, the more the hustler movement flourishes. This is because the common mwanachi can easily identify with the latter as opposed to the former.
From the onset, the BBI was presented as an elitist club for power sharing and expansion of the Executive to accommodate the many leaders whose tenures of office will be ending in 2022.
So that these politicians remain relevant after the expiry of their terms, they are supporting the BBI law change, which seeks to create positions for them. The truth is that BBI is not about the struggles of the common mwanachi but about self-serving interests of the elite who do not want to go home after 2022.
Governors who have served their second and final terms in office are a worried lot. The political opulence and power trappings they have enjoyed for the last eight years will soon end. Others have embezzled county funds and their moments of reckoning will soon dawn on them.
To cover up their under hand dealings, they want to create positions of power that would enable them to protect their loot. Such positions are only guaranteed in the BBI.
On the other hand, the people’s awakening is being realised through the hustler movement. It is this mass movement that majority of Kenyans are hoping will emaciate them from years of mismanagement.
The movement gives hope to small businesses such as mama mbogas, salonists, touts, boda bodas, taxi drivers, second-hand cloth sellers, shoe shiners, drivers, kiosk owners, small-scale traders and generally majority of Kenyans youths who hustle every day to put food on the table.
For a long time, the elite has disregarded these down trodden Kenyans. Their day-to-day stories are never amplified. They struggle every day but almost always go unnoticed. They do not count yet they are the largest voting bloc. The Hustler Movement is some form of insurrection to them.
The William Ruto-led movement is an embodiment of the youth who have lived the fallacy of future leaders for far too long now. Subsequent governments have consistently marginalised the youth, despite constituting 65 per cent of the nation’s population. Now with the movement, the majority of the youth are realising that they can take charge of their own political destiny by fighting for their rightful place.
The youths are awakening to the reality of jostling for their places as opposed to waiting for the political elite to appoint them. The political elite continues to recycle old people at the expense of the energetic and talented youths.
Ashford Gikunda is a MA student in Project Planning and Management at UoN
