State has captured, enslaved citizens who wait to be instructed

Wherever you go these days the topic for conversation is almost always that of referendum. For some bizarre reason everyone is preparing themselves for a referendum with the betting community even putting a tentative date on it. All that is missing are the questions but even these appear to have been leaked from the Building Bridges team (BBI).  

Recall that the BBI team was the product of the bittersweet handshake that calmed one section of the country but produced tension and suspicion elsewhere. This was an inevitable outcome since the handshake was about two gentlemen with a third and other lesser players all excluded from the March 9, 2018 event.

The handshake gave birth to the BBI team that has cash, influence but no legal mandate. No wonder then that some at least believe that the script has been written and all that remains is for a suitable date for the release of the BBI predetermined ‘findings’. This may appear a cynical analysis of current events but when trust in public office is at a minimum every move will be regarded with suspicion. Put another way, when the State is captured then every institution is made to serve the powerful elites present and future selfish interests, not yours.

In other words, the upcoming census and boundaries review should assist in national planning and budgeting. However, many feel that they together with the recent Huduma Number registration will be manipulated to serve particular interests. Trust is fast disappearing and that is very worrying and unhealthy. Reports of some folk selling their land in the North Rift and relocating are equally disturbing. We have been here before but who remembers? How many times must we pull back from the brink before eventually leaving it too late to do so?

The so called independent commissions established in the 2010 Constitution have been starved of cash, emasculated and reduced to mere departments led by handpicked anonymous and weak individuals. The IEBC, NLC, NCIC and others don’t even have commissioners in place and there is no rush to find replacements. When the national commission on human rights (KNCHR) receives a mere 300million or 0.01 per cent of the 2019-20 budget you know that it already has one leg in the grave. The Judiciary is the only arm of government whose performance gains public approval but they remain poorly funded.

State capture is for real and that is why the so called war on corruption is going nowhere. We are in a very worrying situation and there is no bright light at the end of the tunnel. What is remarkable is that while the state has been captured it in turn has captured and enslaved the minds, souls and intelligence of the masses. The masses remain enslaved waiting for instructions from their masters of when to demonstrate, throw stones or embrace. Yesterday, there was no reason to read Katiba because Baba has read it. Today, he we need to amend it because you were told it is flawed.

But enslavement and poverty go hand in hand and many have not woken up to discover that they are tools and slaves in the political games of the rich and their God given dignity is being trampled on a daily basis by lying ethnic barons and suspicious handouts. Recall again what Harriet Tubman said, ‘I freed 1,000 slaves. I could have freed a thousand more if only they realised they were slaves.’ How long will the masses remain enslaved or what if they threw off the shackles of ethnicity, poverty and deceit and proclaimed their liberation! Perhaps we might recall what former Chief Justice Willy Mutunga said in Limuru on July 7: In August 2010, we gave birth to a beautiful child, but ever since the child has been trafficked and defiled by the political class. Instead of protecting and safeguarding the baby, it is being kicked around like a football.

The public are being hounded into a referendum that they didn’t ask for. There seems an inevitability about the vote and its outcome yet that is part of the enslavement culture. Resignation it would appear is about accepting what you cannot change. But why not change and challenge what you can no longer accept! Another way is possible and the campaign to Save Lamu just demonstrated that. That can be replicated on national issues as masses resist state capture. Alternatively, citizens may choose to remain in enslavement. But at a price!

- Gabriel Dolan [email protected] @GabrielDolan1