Kenya slouching towards a police state

The court had earlier issued a ruling requiring the police to appear in court with the abducted youth. One can understand the parent’s agony. A number of youthful critics of the Ruto regime have been abducted and disappeared.

After listening to the distraught father, the judge could only issue another summons to the police to appear in court and produce the abducted youth, which demonstrated the weakness of the judiciary vis- a-vis an increasingly authoritarian regime.

But it’s not just the youth who are being abducted by a hooded secret police squad. Politicians and other citizens have also met the same fate. Some of the abducted are released without charge after being tortured. Some are brought to court to face all kinds of ridiculous charges. Some are found dead.

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A dictatorship is often not an event, it is a gradual process. Over the past two years of the Ruto regime, we have witnessed this process unfold before our eyes.

First, it was opposition politicians being kidnapped. Then anti-regime bloggers. Then a billionaire businessman. When the Gen-Z revolted earlier this year, the regime deployed snipers who splattered the brains of the unarmed youth on pavements and streets.

This was followed by a spate of arrests, abductions and extra-judicial executions. Parliament could not speak out because it had become – through monetary inducement — an extension of the executive.

The judiciary refused to assert itself. Even the church, until recently, had been compromised by handsome handouts. The opposition was considerably weakened by defection of Raila Odinga, once a fierce opponent of the government. Then Uhuru Kenyatta, who was seen as a silent voice within the opposition, was compromised when his close lieutenants joined the government.

Recently, however, the church has woken up from its largesse-induced slumber to vehemently protest the growing dictatorship. The remaining members of the opposition have emerged from their timidity and are now loudly demanding the regime adhere to constitutional order. Civil society groups have increased their democracy activism.

The usually conservative middle class is voicing concern about the state of democracy. The impoverished class is frustrated. Gen-Z anger is palpable. There is disquiet in the education and health sectors.

There is alarm in the business sector. A recent poll by Infotrak captured this universal dissatisfaction. According to the poll, over 70 percent of Kenyans believe the country is headed in the wrong direction.

The regime has two options. It can listen to the voices of dissent. Or it can increase the crackdown on dissent. The first option will secure the freedoms enshrined in the constitution and ensure stability. The second option can only lead to national strife, a totalitarian state and, finally, a failed state.

Tee Ngugi is a Nairobi-based political commentator