There was little to rejoice about as Kenyans shouted 'Happy New Year!'

President William Ruto's government is facing criticim over unpopular decisions. [File, Standard]

The transition from 2024 to 2025 was globally not a happy one despite loud shouts of "Happy New Year". Depending on the time zones, there were firework celebrations and shouts of "Happy New Year" almost every hour although the reality on the ground was not 'happy'. There was no happiness on the Russian-Ukraine border, in Palestine which is under routinised destruction, in the Horn of Africa with its multiple conflicts, and in Kenya where the police are accused of abductions, human rights abuses, and other unbecoming behaviours.

The history of Kenya's post-colonial period is full of moments of political tensions. Some tensions are externally engineered, often fracturing the image of a stable and reliable country where things work. Such moments include the seemingly externally inspired 2007/2008 election crisis, fitting very well into Naomi Klein's 'Shock Doctrine Theory' of International Relations that is often applied to Third World countries. Currently, there is the self-inflicted loss of common sense and trust in the governance evident in the 2024/25 end-of-year developments. Some players in the 2007/8 crisis, with President William Ruto in the lead, are also players in the 2024/25 public loss of trust in government.