I believe democracy is an ecology, a transitory and mutable system of government.
A political experience that can be peaceful yet chaotic, a jumble of accidents, powerful ambitions, ideals, values, misconceptions, and legitimate intentions toward a broader philosophy of a people’s culture to govern themselves.
My perspective can resonate more with our East African neighbours, the people of Kenya and their government.
Nairobi, Monday afternoon, October 8th, 2024: The world was watching, and so was I, as Kenyan Deputy President His Excellency Geoffrey Rigathi Gachagua, stood before the Kenyan National Assembly to defend his case against impeachment.
History was written, a legacy defended, and a democracy performed, which can hardly be reflected in any other country in Africa but Kenya.
The institution of Parliament in the context of the national assembly of Kenya, listening to an executive official defend his political purpose amidst all the anger, anguish, and ideological fracture but yet civil discourse held by legitimate course where a separation of powers has nurtured the Kenyan people into a unique political experience of its kind.
He was there to face moral scrutiny, defend his credibility, be a voice of his own, and make his case before the Kenyan parliament, the Kenyan people, and, whether he knows it or not, the world, the intellectual fabric of scholars, constitutional law academics, political scientists, international relations analysts, and young primary school children, where the teachings of institutional checks and balances are part of the study of civics.
And perhaps political advisors across many presidencies.
Generation Z, a Kenyan wokeness and the making of a generation seems to be an army of weak partisan allegiance but strong bonds, technology savvy, survivors within a challenging economy, compelled to enmesh themselves into a fearsome crowd.
“It is our time to eat.” “Ruto must go.” A democratic struggle, as his excellency Ruto, the most resilient and mature statesman under modern political pressure, took the historical moment to accept the rejection of the finance bill.
Generation Z represented that part of Kenyan agility that could no longer afford to wallow in the comfort zone, a structure of feeling in which lawyers must do everything.
A civil society that wanted accountability, where power must meet the promise.
Ruto’s Presidential management: In my opinion, Kenya’s president possesses excellent oratory skills. Managed by talented presidential advisors, his performativity in office during crises has defined the statesman whose role in the presidency is democracy’s momentous experience.
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Confronted by critics and pundits alike, Ruto has never dwelled in the acrimonious politics of division but listens and pushes a consensus after telling the truth, no matter how hard it is the truth. In other words, Ruto has practised Ratan Tata’s vision of leadership when he said, “Leadership is about being a servant first. It’s about understanding the needs of others and responding to those needs.”
Tata’s quote, “Be persistent and resilient in the face of challenges, for they are the building blocks of success,” is more reflective. The language Generation Z understands and the Language People remember:
Kenyan political culture has given them a Presidency with a language people remember. President Ruto’s choice of words and sentences in public does not meet every challenge demanded by young Kenyans, particularly Generation Z. Still, Ruto’s style is a performance of a democracy that evolves but builds on strong institutions.
Perhaps no other African country has wrestled the waves of social media digital democracy than Kenya.
An African President in the Digital Age: In the tapestry of digital spaces on politics, President Ruto has managed to respond to questions on social media.
Social media is a niche product in Kenya, and there can be many dynamics, especially in a population whose median age is more educated. This is more critical when more space to speak is given.
The Kenyan Presidency has not taken the choice of being the naïve line of shutting down social media regardless of how political pressure rises.
The stakes can be so high, and online politics has many angles and dynamics, particularly in this internet age with the rise of Artificial intelligence.
In my humble opinion and with due respect, Kenyans are a tweeter-ring empire, making politics on the ground very basic through subsets of its manifestations on social media.
Kenyans who have accounts on social media represent the generation that has access to the internet, but more candidly, a subset of a robust subset of the tweeting Kenyan.
They can tweet on anything with massive lines of deep comments. Topics can range from Tanzanians’ English language competence to their admiration of Tanzanian artists to why their President consistently flew overseas.
Between his rise into the presidency in 2022, Ruto inherited and lived in a political arena in which social media was becoming more visible and gaining more followers, usurping the power and influence of traditional media, including print media.
Kenya’s democracy, including presidential democracy, has presented itself as a robust, functional digital era government that has prioritised online media.
In a country whose police have shown more resilience to demonstrations and sometimes even with rioters and looters, can we say institutions evolve when democracy becomes more significantly performed?
From sensitive hashtags like “#Rutomustgo” to peaceful ones like #Weareone, Kenyans are just Kenyans. As lawyers, this also reflects the competence of its legal fraternity, constitutional legitimacy, and separation of powers.
A country which can let its people dispute the official narrative is significantly distinctive.
Many would have taken accusations of lack of patriotism, lack of nationalism, imperialist stooges and many labels that come with challenging the status quo of elites in a time of complex global dynamics, including climate change, the war in Sudan, the Middle East and other parts of the world that are experiencing conflicts.
Kenyan democracy and what it means to Kenyans: Over the past decade, Kenyan democracy has changed not only the way Kenyans communicate with their government and themselves but also with the world.
It is easy to believe there are always arguments, chaos, and political turmoil, but that depends on which news feed you watch: global news or Kenyan political news. Above all, it all depends on how knowledgeable you are about Kenyan history and the Kenyan people.
In a country with highly contested elections, presidents come in all packages and a constitution that creates a public command of how a republic is slowly but steadily inserting itself into a narrative that Kenya is an international republic.
This is oriented towards an international audience. When you hear how the Kenyan Members of parliament fry their Deputy president, you realize they are a history in the making, a global narrative that will most likely make sense in the foreseeable future of scholarly modern global history and international affairs political thought.
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Can the rest of Africa learn from Kenyans? It all depends on one’s attitude and conclusions about Kenyan democracy.
Suppose one sees from a pessimistic line of unfiltered and inauthentic social media videos that can have sensational voices and political deepfake technology very similar to dubbing, where a video is inserted with a voice narrative which initially was not the original audio. In that case, one can have a very manipulated understanding of our neighbours.
But if one has to explore the political dimensions of a people, their way of experience and how they act under different dimensions of the crisis, and what their leaders, both members of parliament and judiciary, are doing to mitigate such crises, Kenya is a Republic worth learning from. Each nation can have its own interests different from Kenya’s.
The philosophy of governments and governments depends on a distinctive political ecology, as mentioned in my first paragraph.
Secondly, Kenyans have their own language, and its interpretation can be quite different from our own, like the Swahili word Stima, which for them means electricity while we call it “Umeme.“
It is easy to hear a person saying in Kenya, “Sioni kama ntaweza kurudi,” and you take it in the formal and official Tanzanian original Swahili context to mean “I don’t see myself returning,“ while it can mean “I will never live here, again“ in a specific Kenyan context.
So, we have to learn from each other and have a deeper understanding of the rest of our neighbours if Tanzania is to earn its credibility, the likes of which first-generation Tanzanian leaders earned in Africa.
I am one of those folks who watches statesmen’s speeches, from global icons to regional leaders. While I am not a social media geek, I surf the tapestry of the online frontier as well.
Social media is clustered around different fronts and communities of interest, and I only follow people who speak or share stuff and subjects I am already interested in.
As someone who has seen and read about the Kenyan narrative, I am not in any way vested in the realistic experience of Kenyan nationals on the ground. Given my birth year, I do not qualify to be part of Generation Z.
However, I am confident that, unlike my parents, I am part of the African population that has become digital natives, and smartphones and the world of social media came during my time.
A millennial who sees the world change but with a strong analytical mind not to be manipulated easily by the digital age or social media superusers.
That said, the idea that Kenya is a democracy is not farfetched. Like any other nation, it can have weaknesses but also strengths.
As a scholar who wants to shape the future of intellectual power, I have a lot to learn. Unlike opinion pieces and articles, social media platforms make it easier for readers to express their true reflections on the writer and ponder them publicly, be they positively or passionately.
It is also in my humble opinion when I say President Ruto is resilient democrat and performs in a democracy, my critics will not disagree with me from a pessimistic conclusion.
I hold holistic ideals that among Africans, one can learn from the other, and learning from the other does not conclude with positively appreciating what one has. In terms of the dynamics of democracy, I live in a very stable political environment.
I credit my president and our way of Tanzanian experience that has shaped democracies in Africa past and present, which I look forward to keeping if not by action and writing, then not by negative reaction.
