The spirit of Saba Saba 2025 was soiled by the violence and looting orchestrated by gangs. Locals in Mt Kenya report new faces during the demos in their towns.
In the ensuing analysis, a conventional argument that Mt Kenya people dislike violent demonstrations because they are owners of private property has emerged. It is a bad view, because it insinuates that demos must be violent and that Kenyans who turn up have no property.
I believe that all Kenyans dislike violent demonstrations. And that they need not be ugly. Violence comes from two key fronts. First, the police, in effort to stop the demos, and secondly, infiltration by rogue elements. Both were evident on Saba Saba 2025.
Murang’a governor Irungu Kangata, tells of how his youthful team was lobbed with teargas during a peaceful demonstration against President Kibaki in 2002.
During the cost of living demonstrations in 2023, I was twice detained by the police, who took pre-emptive action before demonstrations could start. There was no violence, the large contingents of officers easily overwhelming us before crowds could gather.
As one blogger put it, the ratio of police to citizens was 20 to 1! Watching a clip of one of the arrests, infiltration is clear as individuals shout from behind the police, “Nyahururu it is not Kisumu, we don’t want demonstrations”.
Kenyans are angry at, and frustrated by, economic outcomes. A decade and half in the trenches birthed a new constitution. Vision 2030 promised prosperity. But alas, living standards have declined over the last seven years.
Opinion surveys are one way of measuring the public mood. A July 2023 TIFA survey showed that only 24 percent of Kenyans supported the housing levy. 69 percent do not support it, while seven percent did not want to answer.
About 54 percent were certain they will not get a house. Kenyans were living in hard times. Only 11 percent were on fulltime employment, and three percent earned more than Sh50,000 per month.
An InfoTrack poll from February 2023 found that only 22 percent of Kenyans believed the country was heading in the right direction. By comparison, 62 percent believed that Kenya was heading in the wrong direction, primarily because of the high and rising cost of living (73 percent). What would be the solution?
The government chose high interest rates to tame inflation. Azimio argued that subsidies to support mwananchi were better. They demanded lower interest rates. Government countered that timing was crucial – inflation had to be contained first before interest rates could come down.
As these arguments raged, large crowds came out on Saba Saba 2023 in Nairobi and other major cities, but not in Central. I argued then that while the demos were not as large in Muranga, Nyeri and Nyahururu, the silence in Mount Kenya was not to be mistaken as support for the policies then in place.
Fast forward. The 2024 Gen Z revolt completely changed the landscape. Now, moderate corporate types have turned radical, sounding frustrated and angry.
This has rekindled arguments about reading the public mood, which featured prominently in 2022. At that time, Mt Kenya politicians, mostly in the Jubilee Party, felt immense pressure to join the UDA.
The latter was very popular because the public preferred the party’s presidential candidate. Many politicians, saying they were listening to the ground, caved in.
A few stood their ground, campaigning instead for the Azimio Coalition. We upheld principle, but lost our seats. Afterwards, some politicians, although already elected or nominated, still decamped to Kenya Kwanza, betraying the voters who had just elected them.
While it was their prerogative, decamping meant they did not believe in the solutions they campaigned on. The duplicity made voters angry and disappointed that they had been duped.
I believe leaders should lead and be in the forefront of problem solving. Our current economic difficulties mirror global trends. They require a radical rethink, not populism. We can’t borrow ourselves out of debt, nor improve productivity through rhetoric.
Reversing the decline in real wages requires improved productivity. New ideas are needed to make the financial sector more responsive to monetary policy. Programme execution must radically improve so that committed funds are not lying idle.
A grand new vision is necessary. While populism may gather votes, we need positive action. Transformation needs change in behaviour, and collective effort of, the citizens. That effort needs leaders to inspire and motivate it!
Ndiritu Muriithi is an economist and partner at Ecocapp Capital. He is also the chairman of KRA and former governor of Laikipia County. Email: [email protected]
Unlock a world of exclusive content today!Unlock a world of exclusive content today!
