28/06/2025
I consider myself a principled centrist with progressive values; moderate in temperament, progressive in ideals, and liberal in principle.
That has always been my position on matters such as religion, minority rights (including LGBTQ+), politics, human rights, and democracy.
People I’ve interacted with over the years; parents, siblings, friends, teachers, colleagues, have often labeled me as “stubborn.” Strangely enough, I’ve grown to embrace that label. Being called stubborn now feels like wearing a badge of honor.
To me, respecting people’s choices is fundamental. But when those choices impact everyone, accountability must follow.
Politics, unfortunately, tends to be a space where decency is often lost. It's one of those arenas where many believe their way is the only way, and anything different is dismissed as evil or ignorant.
Take the current Gen Z movement, for instance. By age, I belong to Gen Z, but ideologically, I struggle to identify with it.
How can a movement that brands itself as progressive, the alternative to the old order, begin to mirror that very order? If you disagree with them, you're labeled an enemy, often demonized, and in some circles, socially "executed" on the spot. That isn’t progress. That’s dictatorship, where opposing views are not just rejected but vilified. Absurd!
I understand this may sound utopian in the African context, but democracy, at its core, offers us tools: checks and balances, structured transitions, and peaceful means of change.
The clearest legal path to remove a democratically elected regime includes:
1. Impeachment via the legislature: but in our country, the legislature and executive operate more like a single organ, rendering this option almost useless.
2. Resignation: which is rare and unlikely.
3. Public participation and constitutional mechanisms (Articles 255–257): can't talk much about it because I don't know how it works.
That leaves us with the ballot box as the most viable, realistic, and peaceful method.
This is what I believe. And it’s the path I think progressive-minded people of my generation should champion. Protests, a constitutional right, while understandable, it often result in death, injury, and destruction of property. But those in power? They’re still sipping martinis on some private yachts in Malibu, while sons and daughters of peasants are laid to rest. It’s a painful, cyclical tragedy.
What we’re suffering from is systemic rot, stretching back to the post-independence era. Chanting “So-and-so must go” is not a long-term solution.
Our leadership mirrors our society, our education system, religious institutions, social life, and collective thinking. Some of these leaders studied in the same schools we did. Some are even our relatives. Most importantly, they didn’t elect themselves, we did.
To change the system, we must screen our leaders on ideology, competency, and merit. Chapter 6 of our Constitution, on Leadership and Integrity, is one of the most underutilized tools we have. If we genuinely invoke it every time we cast a vote, we could build a fully functional government in 2–5 electoral cycles.
As a student of history, I know this: coups bear bitter fruit. They may feel like shortcuts to justice, but they usually plant the seeds of dictatorship, repression, and ruin. They destroy institutions, violate human rights, and reduce vibrant cities to ghost towns.
The Russian, Cuban, and French revolutions all began with noble intentions, but look at the suffering that followed. Military takeovers in DRC, Egypt, Sudan, and others are proof that coups don’t cure decay, they deepen it.
Those haunting scenes from The Movie, Hotel Rwanda, the road littered with corpses, are a brutal reminder of what failed systems and violent transitions can produce.
In the end, the ballot is still our strongest weapon. Use it wisely. Remember, we only have one country, being a refugee or an IDP can be one of the worst experiences a breathing Sapiens can undergo.
Mí voz 😊
Dr. King'ori Pauline Njoroge La Patrona Jerome Ogola
