State’s acts of disdain will eventually lead to people power

The mass uprisings in Sudan and Algeria these past weeks, and in Ethiopia last year, all tell the same story. That you can oppress people for a while (even a long time); deny them their dignity and rights; steal from them; disrespect them and treat them like fools, but there is no stopping them when they reach their breaking point.

I hope Yoweri Museveni, Uhuru Kenyatta, William Ruto and others of that ilk are watching. Yes, each country is different, and different tactics are used by different tyrants, but they all come crushing when people lose their fear of death or pain. We may not know the trigger that will lead to the outpouring of people, but tyrants are always overconfident that they can survive—ala Omar al-Bashir--thinking they can manage the protests or kill enough people to spread intimidation.