Politics in the 90s was not for the faint-hearted it was a game for the mighty, ruthless, cunning and dare devils.
Just like today, it was a game of the politicians, the church, the police,g oons, brutal hirings and the state to date the game has refused to morph into anything better.
It was a time when making it to a seat meant traversing politicians' places of interest with goodies for the public and church during vote hunting.
Church as is today and especially during the last polls was largely used as a vote hunting centre thereby receiving donations more so in the form of instruments, sound systems and pews in a bid to woo Christians into their voting basket which worked wonders.
In many villages politicians' ability to "worship" in many churches and "accepting Christ" in public was an every Sunday occurrence a method that sprung many on their coveted seats.
This was the era when firebrand politicians and outspoken university students gave the government of the day sleepless nights as they agitated for better governance, constitutional amendments and the release of political prisoners.
No news was complete then without seeing the likes of the current Siaya governor James Orengo, lawyer AGitobu Imanyara and Paul Muite, Dr Mukhisa Kituyi, George Nyanja, Martin Shikuku, George Nthenge, Mohamed Bamahriz, Raila Odinga and many more.
These men were used to police handcuffs, rickety landrover and Mahindra rides and were piled up in police cells.
The above-mentioned people graced newspaper pages and TV screens to the extent that their names had become household names, it would be abnormal to buy a paper without one of the above being mentioned with police being tagged along.
These names fought for the democratic space that we are enjoying including making Kenya a multiparty democracy a clamour that left many maimed or dead.
Church then did not play cold and hot, they condemned and voiced their concerns as well, some fiery clerics kept the then administration in check when they engaged in excess, they would receive donations as is the norm but that did not silence them from fighting from pulpit and on the streets.
The church made their voices heard and as the politicians received their dose of police batons, the clerics were not spared.
This was the era when firebrand clerics like Kipsang Muge who is suspected to have been killed in a staged car accident, Reverend Timothy Njoya, Bishop Ndingi Mwana A Nzeki, Bishop Okulu of the Anglican church, environmentalist Wangari Maathai and Fr Kaiser of the Mary hill congregation to mention but a few.
The clerics together with the then political young turks backed by leaders of Universities ploughed through political space and persevered through police batons and brutality.
It will be remembered that the likes of Rev Njoya being clobbered senseless by the elite GSU crack unit for making people "see" the excesses of the government, Njoya would later be clobbered in church under heavy teargas fumes for preaching the "wrong" message.
It was a heart-wrenching moment when two to four brutes descended on the cleric with batons and boots, it was dog beating.
There is nothing in modern politics that can be equated to the firebrand and high-octane politics of the 90s save for the gruesome murder and abductions following the Genz uprising.
The agitators of the 90s were crushed by special forces in Peugeot 504 station wagon and Saloon, the agitators of democracy and whistle-browers today are crushed in modern Subarus by crack units, today at least because of technology and democracy space the noise makers see courts, and earlier it was a day in dungeons at Nyayo house with a whipping team on standby to mine information.
