The poor are fodder for political contests

It is ironic that political agitation in Kenya is watered by the blood of the poor who have nothing to lose or gain from the very freedom they fight for.

Dead, buried, and forgotten in hours, many get caught up in the crossfire by mistake and are felled by stray bullets or raped and bludgeoned by police or goons hired by politicians. And then there are those who die in street protests, fighting for what they believe to be a just cause. Mostly urban and rural poor, be they Luo, Kisii, Kalenjin, Luhya, Kikuyu, or from whatever tribe, speak different languages, swear by different politicians but are all bound by the umbilical cord of poverty.

It is said that the one place where man thinks deepest is on the toilet seat of his or her house. With the entire world shut out, one can ruminate on their deepest fears, mistakes, and disappointments without having to worry about the reaction of spouses, children, and followers that demand them to be strong, powerful, and all-conquering.

One hopes that President Ruto and Azimio la Umoja leader, Raila Odinga occasionally use such opportunities to ask themselves one question: Why is it that during political contests, violence is restricted to slums and the poor sections of our cities? Why aren’t protesters ever shot opposite Yaya Centre or women raped in Muthaiga, Runda, and the like? Why, pray, do the poor from competing political divides set upon themselves with crude weapons?

That streak of violence, that self-cannibalization, is a manifestation of deep-seated frustrations borne of years of injustice which they mistakenly believe can only be ended by one of their own rising to power. Sadly, these frustrations are exploited by the very politicians who perpetuate poverty by institutionalizing graft, greed, and incompetence.

But the day the wretched of the earth unite behind a leader who lives with them eats with them, speaks like them, and for them is the day our leaders will realize the real tyranny behind millions of hungry stomachs with nothing to lose.