Across East Africa, transformation is loudly proclaimed, yet institutions remain fragile, unable to absorb pressure. Leaders manage crises as performances rather than as opportunities to discipline power into routines that endure. The question is no longer reform for its own sake, but reform with direction.
After independence, development displaced liberation as the badge of legitimacy. Too often it ossified into technocratic routines that counted projects while neglecting the harder work of building trust, securing compliance, and managing dissent.
