Citizens have a right to resist tyranny and hold their leaders to account

There is a sub-textual conversation about the role of government in Kenya today. The immediate impetus for this conversation — that isn’t explicit — is the normative identity of the new Constitution. At the heart of the conversation is a simple and historical tension — the relationship between the state and the citizen.

The state, now under the control of Jubilee — seems to think that its writ to rule is larger than its obligations to the citizen. Jubilee isn’t the first party to conflate political power, born of an election, with its right to rule without restraint. This is precisely the malady that the 2010 Constitution sought to cure — state hubris. Methinks that Jubilee’s overarching philosophy is wrong-headed. Let me elaborate.

I’ll dig deep into history. American thinker Henry David Thoreau wrote “Resistance to Civil Government” in 1849. That seminal piece, which every truly educated person has read, argues that citizens have a duty to resist a government that’s bent on making them agents of injustice.

He was particularly upset about slavery and the Mexican-American War. He called on citizens not to acquiesce to the state’s unjust acts. He found particularly galling an abomination if citizens were to abdicate their conscience to the state.

The answer, he opined, was to be found in the act and duty of civil disobedience. That in essence is the injunction of the 2010 Constitution on Kenyans. Anything less is a betrayal of the country.

Civil disobedience is what makes democracy possible. Remove the right of the people to resist tyranny and bad government and you create a country of slaves. This is the bargain of every democratic state. Citizens must understand this central pivot of freedom and governments must honour it.

Which brings me to Kenya’s legislature. The Speaker of the National Assembly is a lawyer. My presumption is that Speaker Justin Muturi understands that deliberation and deep cogitation are central to the discharge of the august House’s mandate to the people.

He ought to know as a lawyer the concept of the rule of law embeds in it the notion of justice — and just law. It’s his principal duty to uphold that value above all else.

But I am afraid that Mr Muturi has shown a proclivity to act with the narrow mind of a petty partisan. His job as Speaker isn’t to fight CORD, or frustrate the Opposition. That’s the job of Majority Leader Aden Duale who is a partisan attack dog. That’s why Mr Muturi’s role in the undemocratic passage of the Security Law, parts of which the Court has struck down, was a disgrace.

The Opposition in any democracy is the people’s watchdog against the power grab of the state. The Speaker’s duty is to allow deep deliberation. But instead, Mr Muturi abrogated every rule in the book of democracy. That’s unconscionable. He’s been reported saying that he has no regrets.

This is a pattern in the Jubilee-dominated legislature. We’ve seen similar measures taken against the press and others planned against civil society. My take is that only weak governments need to hit citizens with a big stick on the head.

The fear of the press and of civil society is a manifestation of the distrust of citizens by the state. Attempts to clamp on them — the independent eyes of the people — smacks of dictatorship. I have advice for Jubilee – govern least and you will govern best.

I recently saw the horrific tear-gassing of school children at Lang’ata Road Primary School. I bet that doesn’t even happen in North Korea. What on earth would provoke the state to eat its young?

The antidote to the bullying of the people by the state is citizen action. That’s why social media has become a platform of protest, even as the state cracks down on bloggers. The media itself is aghast at some of the restrictions and disruptions meted out against it by the state.

There’s even pressure exerted on robust media through threats to withdraw state advertising revenue. Kenya is on the verge of economic take-off, but it won’t if it becomes a republic of fear.

History shows that when middle classes grow, they insist on greater freedoms. Social media and the press are a necessary valve that the state shouldn’t close. Let the people speak or they will whisper in dark alleys.

Closing off free expression will drive anger underground where it will fester into dangerous schemes and plots. It will sow seeds of discord. Let them march, picket, and demonstrate. Let Parliament be a forum for the most open and deliberative conservations.

Don’t be afraid of the people. The Jubilee state must remember that it’s a servant, not a master, of the people.

Don’t force citizens to engage in civil disobedience because you’ve squelched freedom and liberty. 

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tyranny leaders