I won’t give up: Inside the mind of a protestor

Ochieng Jera

Top Kibera Opposition mobiliser Ochieng Jera is among thousands of National Super Alliance (NASA) supporters who will pour out on the streets on Thursday in anti-IEBC protests. He expects to dodge police bullets and return home alive.

On Monday last week, the former ODM chairman for Kibra branch rescued four Opposition protestors who had been run over by a car in Nairobi. This, he said, will not deter him from making his voice heard.

“This is why Opposition supporters are willing to die for this cause. Raila Odinga himself was detained in prison for almost a decade for the country’s sake. You have to believe in something,” he says.

He adds: “The fact is that the poor are not poor because they are lazy or they want to. It is because those in power have continuously denied everyone from rising up to their level,” he says.

So far, reports have it that at least 40 people have died as the protests enter their fourth week. The protestors say this is the only way their voices can be heard. Another protestor the Sunday Standard talked to says they are in this for the good of the country. “Yes people die but who will live forever anyway. Change has to start from somewhere. So you can’t say you will not take part in a protest because you fear death,” he said.

The political dissent in recent weeks has been exhibited in various forms. The protestors have applied all manner tactics to express their dissent. Some carry placards and occasionally shouting slogans, others strip in public while others carry oranges to signify the Orange Party.

A woman protestor in Nairobi recently caused a stir when she walked through the whole procession bare-chested.

“If Baba says I strip, I will do it,” a placard she was carrying read.

Recently, a woman stripped on live TV sparking a storm on social media. The TV station that captured the event swiftly shift viewers to a discussion panel in studio.

Delvin Okoth, who has never had a formal job or attended college since clearing high school three years ago blames his lack of a job to the government.

Every protest

“I will participate in every protest as so long as it about the Government. Look at the regions where the government has political support and compare their level of development to Opposition zones,” he says.

Psychology experts say while the protests are called by political leaders, the events themselves give a chance to a frustrated section of the community to vent out their frustration against the society. “At the heart of every protest are grievances not even related to the reason why the protest was called in the first place,” says Dr Philomena Ndambuki, a psychologist and director of mentorship at Kenyatta University.

“It could be lack of jobs, feelings of injustice or an imposed grievance. Remember most of those protesters are jobless or feel the society has marginalised them,” she says.

Despite having the biggest economy in East Africa, Kenya has the worst unemployment levels in the region with four out of ten Kenyans in the working age having no jobs. Additionally three out of the four that have jobs are employed in the informal sector with “low wages and no job security” according to the UN, 2017 Human Development Index.

“While Kenya has shown progress in promotion of human development — in improving access to education, health, and sanitation, with more people rising out of extreme poverty — several groups remain disadvantaged,” said the report released in May. But while protests may seem spontaneous, they are in fact planned. In Kibera community ‘parliamentary sessions’ take place every Sunday afternoon and when a major political development has taken place at the Kamukunji Grounds.

If it is a protest, a message from NASA leadership is delivered formally to those present then timelines, possible routes and mobilisers are agreed upon. It is the job of mobilisers to record those who will take part and then account for any injuries or deaths after the protest.

NASA has been adamant that the numbers being witnessed in the protests are as a results of Kenyans believing in their course for justice.

“People believe in us, Kenyans have seen what a rogue government can do to them and they have taken it upon themselves not to rest until Raila Odinga is sworn in as the president of Kenya,” Dagoretti North lawmaker Simba Arati says.

The Government and private sector, however, have condemned the protests saying they are unnecessary and leading to economic losses.