I remember as a young boy when I used to hear that an MP was going to near our village, I would wait even the whole day just to catch a glimpse of him. I remember when the late President Arap Moi was to visit my school St. Mary’s Yala, for the last one week, knowing I was among the chosen students to address him and shake hands with him, I never slept.
But something has changed significantly. We live at a time when President William Ruto, his ministers, PSs, Most MPs, senators, Governors, women Representatives among other government officials have to pay the people for them to come to see them and still the people leave shouting “MUST GO”. One can say whatever they want as an explanation this but the truth remains that people have lost trust in their current political leadership and are seeking alternative leadership.
The president recently said that we have not been well brought up by our parents or that we are taking drugs. He earlier called out generation unpatriotic when we opposed selling our airport to Adani and MPs approved of it in Parliament in a session with Opiyo Wandayi only to call it off when the US government indicted Adani. How would one explain this declining respect once enjoyed by the political class? What seems to have been lost is social licence to operate.
Let me say there are two main types of licences. There is the legal licence to operate and Social licence to operate. The legal licence they get when they get the certificate of election then go on to assume office.
Remember legal licence can be stolen since we have history of stolen elections, stolen nomination certificates just like Sakaja is governor of Nairobi based on fake degree, some medical doctors, teachers, professors have also operated on fake degrees.
A "social licence to operate & quot; (SLO) refers to the level of acceptance or approval a company or project has from the community and relevant stakeholders, essentially signifying whether their operations are considered socially legitimate and acceptable to continue within a given area not a legal document, but rather a perception of legitimacy based on public opinion and trust.
This applied to the government of William Ruto, you can see that Affordable housing, Hustler fund, Adani deal, SHA, CBC, University Funding model and by extension the Cabinet that proposed them, the National Assembly that passed them in parliament granting them budgets have also lost social licence to operate.
That is why the current crop of politicians has lost legitimacy and everyone can’t wait for massive change by sending them home. Remember how so many groups were collecting signatures but what delayed was the re-constitution of IEBC. We even know after the 2027 elections, only 30 Members of the Parliament will come back if not less.
Even the upcoming by-elections, we predict that it’s the emerging youthful
leadership with new political outfits that will be trusted not the establishments like UDA, ODM etc. Remember no one wants change more than a baby in wet diapers.
It seems Kenyan diapers is finally too wet that Kenyans are completely impatient. With the current trend, Kenyans are becoming increasingly indifferent to the current crop of politicians. The era of sycophantic devotion and mass honorary accolades that politicians once enjoyed is fading. Political figures are no longer revered. The euphoric pride of seeing “one of your own” in leadership is waning.
MPs, governors, senators, and other political offices are gradually becoming " ceremonial ", not out of institutional design though, but because the 'social contract' (by Rousseaus terms) which refer to hear social licence to operate upon which political authority has long rested is eroding.
It was Jean-Jacques Rousseau who posited that the moment a people gives itself representatives, it is no longer free. This partly explains the reason behind Kenya’s shifting political consciousness.
The public is waking up to the realisation that politics, at its core, is a civil service, no different from teaching or medicine. The deference once accorded to politicians was not inherent to their roles but a function of perception, I believe. And that perception is quickly dissolving.
Political legitimacy, as Max Weber outlines, rests on a pillar called "charismatic authority" – leaders possessing an almost sacred authority, independent of their actual competence. But, as Weber himself argued, such authority is inherently unstable and must transition into "rational-legal authority" to survive.
Rational-legal authority is a form of legitimate power based on established laws, rules, and procedures. Weber identifies three types of authorities: charismatic, rational-legal and transitional. People are redefining the meaning of political leadership, not as an extraordinary calling but as a functional role subject to performance metrics.
Our economy should be measured by how the bottom 30% are doing in the
supermarket, not how the top 1% are doing in the stock market. This is what
Solomonic economics which proposes that Kenya needs to be a welfare state is
about. That the welfare of the citizens is the state’s priority instead of what currentlyis that the welfare of the political class is the welfare of the state’s priority.
What I mean is that we have a president called William Ruto who cares only about elected officials. His political playbook is that so long as he has the elected officials, he controls the masses. He executed this in taking away the Mt. Kenya from President Uhuru Kenyatta. He did this by ensuring that he went visiting Mt. Kenya every week until as Gachagua puts its, he knew all roads by name.
He used to be accompanied with Uhuru’s Jubilee Mt. Kenya elected leaders and he gave them the notes they used to portray Uhuru Kenyatta as a drunk president who could not help his own community, a president who had abandoned his community, who had run out of ideas proposing an Old man and a witch called Raila Odinga to take over after him.
Upon taking over power, he went after Azimio Members of Parliament to help
him Moses Wetangula get elected as Speaker. Moses Wetangula was then used to make the illegitimate ruling that Azimio was Minority in parliament. When Genz came after him he went for Raila Odinga and his ODM party and brough them into government with the belief that when he has Raila and ODM elected leaders in his government he has the people which made him form the broad-based government.
This believe makes him think that so long as the top is happy, the bottom will be fine which means he actually never believed in his own bottom-up ideology.
We have information that the members of parliament visited State house and told William Ruto that they had lost popularity on the ground due to the President’s mismanagement of the economy, appointments of incompetent tribal kingpins, mismanagement of healthcare, education, runaway corruption and diplomatic
mistakes.
They feared that their chances of re-election had reduced significantly
unless they stood against the President. But to keep them loyal to him, Ruto
promised the members of parliament that he will give them about 50 million each to guarantee their re-election so long as they kept him in power till 2027 an fight for his second term. That will cost Kenyans about Ksh.1.45 trillion.
That is why Ruto will not bothered about the common man’s problems such as SHA, EduAfya, Linda Mama, Education Capitation, Healthcare workers’ salaries, Teachers salaries and working conditions, construction of Grade 9 Classrooms, Government services like ID cards, University Funding model for youths, creating jobs etc.
He is on a borrowing spree and tax hikes. Now Kenyans know where their money is going, to elected officials who are currently Kenyan’s greatest enemies. President Ruto has borrowed about 8.7 Trillion since he took office about two and half years ago and this figure is to go up given the recent amount to be borrowed by treasury, he is reaching the 10 Trillion milestone soon with no major development going on, more poverty, non-performing economy among others.
President Ruto will sacrifice a common man, break central bank to keep Elected leaders both in ODM and UDA happy at the expense of non- elected Kenyans.
This is a strategy to ensure that our Alternative Leadership of getting more youth-ful elected MPs, Senators, MCs, Women reps etc become very difficult since the current Elected politicians will be well oiled by Ruto for their re-election. However, I believe this strategy is so mis-formed that it will fail and we shall form the next government with fresh blood and give Kenyans “Mwazo Mpya”. Mwanzo Mpya under the J-25 movement will deliver welfare state where the welfare of the citizens becomes the priority of the state as opposed the the current situation where the welfare of the political class is the priority of the state.
The problem we have is that Politicians control the economy, politicians are richer than entrepreneurs so they control the economy. In that regard, when the GDP grows, money market grows, it is them benefitting so they celebrate it and quote them.
As they continue quoting for us how the money market is doing and how the GDP is expanding, the citizens can only see the elected politicians richer and richer since Ruto has the richest cabinet in the history of Kenya with a net worth of about 18 billion, four of his cabinet members being Billionaires. They only know about money market and how they continue shipping our money overseas.
A strong economy is not about how rich investors and politicians are doing but how ordinary Kenyans can afford basic needs. If the bottom 30% can comfortably buy food, pay rent, and access healthcare, then the economy is truly working. But if unga prices keep rising while salaries remain low, then growth is not helping most people.
Looking at the stock market or big businesses alone gives a false picture of
progress. For example, if Nairobi’s top CEOs make millions while boda boda riders and mama mbogas struggle to buy food, then something is wrong. A good economy should lift everyone, not just a few at the top.
Tunaskizana kweli!
Prof. Fred Ogola is a Strategist, Economist and Governance Expert. An author of Solomonic Economics that is Transforming Many African Economies
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