The pioneering campaigners for freedom and democracy, such as Raila’s father, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, found that funerals provided convenient platforms. In some parts of the country where repression was at its meanest, funerals became about the only platforms for political expression. If that comment comes to define President Kenyatta, it reveals a decadent leadership still stuck in kleptocratic tendencies where pursuit of political office is not about service, but about eating. President Kenyatta might well have authored his “let them eat cake” moment with those thoughtless “nyama tutakula” remarks. In essence, we are being told that “Our Turn to Eat” is the guiding philosophy of the Jubilee regime of President Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto.

Source: Daily Nation September 19, 2016 19:07 UTC