How praise and worship make dictatorship and fuel impunity

President William Ruto (right), former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, Rarieda MP Otiende Amollo and a section of ODM leaders arrive for the funeral service of the late George Oduor, at Ramba High of in Siaya County, on April 12, 2025. [Emmanuel Wanson, Standard]

Historian Charles Hornsby recalls the first two years of the Jomo Kenyatta presidency in jarring words, "As both a charismatic leader and founding father, Kenyatta needed no philosophy of rule. He was the king, or the elder of the nation who had suffered for his people, and his right was divine in 1965."

He goes on, "There were even no references during the 20 October celebrations of Kenyatta Day to his "Last Supper" with colleagues before his arrest. His style was no longer that of a man of the people - he was a man apart, to whom access was carefully controlled by bodyguards and supporters."

His five comrades-at-arms in the infamous Kapenguria trials got steadily marginalised while the founding president steadily transformed not just into a lion, but an imperial monarch. Prof Anyang' Nyong'o recalls those heady days in a 2007 paper titled Profiles of Courage: Ramogi Achieng Oneko, "Post-independence politics led to differences between Oneko and Kenyatta that became somehow irreconcilable. Oneko strongly believed in championing the interests of the poor, particularly with regard to access to land."

Before the Kenyan republic could celebrate its third anniversary, the fallout was complete. Oneko and other critical heroes of independence like Bildad Kaggia, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga and Joseph Murumbi were out of government. Pio Gama Pinto, who had been detained for Kenya's freedom, was in the grave, courtesy of an assassin's bullet.

Even those who thought they were untouchable were nowhere, within six years of Uhuru. Tom Mboya was dead. Argwings Kodhek was dead. Both perished in circumstances that still haunt Kenya. And the king detained afresh some of those who had fought alongside him for freedom.

There emerged a class of human sirens that sang the president's praises, as he threatened to "pound like rats" anyone who brought "nyokonyoko (rubbish)" against his "impeccable government," or as he often said in Kiswahili, "Serikali yetu tukufu." And my generation was present, to witness these things, and to carry them to today's new generations. Hence, I hear Siaya Governor, James Aggrey Orengo, very loudly and clearly when he says, "We have been here before... Tell your leaders the truth... ! I cannot be a member of praise and worship...!"

Political praise and worship was a terrible precedent passed on to the next dispensation that promised to walk in Mzee Kenyatta's footsteps. The Nyayos were real, only that they were perfected to do better than what the first dispensation had done.

As an eye witness, I saw President Moi morph steadily from a benevolent strongman to a draconian wielder of the Nyayo baton. And it was all a factor of praise and worship. They called him "everything good number one." He was teacher number one, farmer number one, philosopher number one, sportsman number one; everything!

When people have managed any leader's space in such hagiographic fashion, power can touch him in dangerous ways. He actually begins to believe in his infallibility. Those who dare correct him are branded enemies. Retribution follows. The country begins to sink under echoes of silence. The silence enforces official heavy handedness. The law surrenders to might and, eventually, collapses altogether. The country is left to plunder by the high and mighty.

Yes, we have been here before. Does Kenya want to repeat the mistakes of history? The deafening choirs around President William Ruto are ominous.

When Orengo cautions Kenya about the horrendous praise and worship culture, it is not that he worries about himself. He has been there and seen it all. He is therefore rather like Julius Caesar. He would tell you what to worry about rather than what he worries about - for he is always Caesar. And Jesus Christ tells the weeping women who escort him to Golgotha to be crucified, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep over me. Weep over yourselves and your children." There is a new generation of sycophants who brook no criticism of President Ruto and his Kenya Kwanza regime.

But there are no saintly governments on earth. Mzee Kenyatta's "Serikali Tukufu" wasn't one, and indeed none of the rest. To intimidate critics and dissenters is to roll back the lessons and gains of history.

Orengo placed his life on the line for Kenya when he defied bullets on 7 July 1991. He rode on top of a pickup van to Kamkunji for the first multiparty rally as the police fired. It is sad that juvenile toddies and sundry hirelings would try to gag him for trying to nip in the bud the rise of a new dictatorship.

-Dr Muluka is a strategic communications adviser