Protests against the cost of living and a litany of other political grievances in Kenya elicit mixed feelings and deeper reflections on what democracy is all about. It is sobering how the media, the international community and other actors literally delegitimised the protests on, understandably, account of deaths and destruction following the sustained protest momentum.

My thesis is that the role and space of the opposition in African countries is a failed experiment and therefore no longer tenable. On paper, it sounds absolutely critical to have an opposition in any Parliament to check the government. In practice, the opposition is scorned by the electorate and ridiculed by the ruling party.

Many African countries treat the opposition badly. For this reason, everyone seeking an elective seat fights to be in government. The 'defections' from the opposition to government, the opposition that rubber stamps the government agenda, starving the opposition zones of public resources and the continuous involvement of powerful States in imposing leaders in African countries speaks to the failure of democracy as a system of governance appropriate for African countries.