How praise and worship make dictatorship and fuel impunity

President William Ruto (right), former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, Rarieda MP Otiende Amollo and a section of ODM leaders arrive for the funeral service of the late George Oduor, at Ramba High of in Siaya County, on April 12, 2025. [Emmanuel Wanson, Standard]

Historian Charles Hornsby recalls the first two years of the Jomo Kenyatta presidency in jarring words, “As both a charismatic leader and founding father, Kenyatta needed no philosophy of rule. He was the king, or the elder of the nation who had suffered for his people, and his right was divine in 1965.”

He goes on, “There were even no references during the 20 October celebrations of Kenyatta Day to his “Last Supper” with colleagues before his arrest. His style was no longer that of a man of the people – he was a man apart, to whom access was carefully controlled by bodyguards and supporters.”