When systems turn: What Tuju's case says about power in Kenya

Former CS Raphael Tuju addressing the press at his Karen home in Nairobi. [Collins Oduor, Standard]

There is a quiet illusion that often accompanies power, the belief that injustice is tolerable so long as it is directed elsewhere. It is a dangerous comfort, this idea that the machinery of coercion can be observed, even quietly approved, without consequence to those who stand close to it. Yet history, with its unyielding memory, teaches a different lesson. Systems do not forget. They outlive individuals. And when they turn, they do so without regard for past loyalties.

The unfolding legal and political troubles surrounding Raphael Tuju invite sympathy and reflection. Not the shallow reflection that asks only whether he is being treated fairly now, but the deeper one that interrogates how we arrived at this moment. In the arc of governance, today’s victim can be yesterday’s silent witness.