Kenyans must interrogate, not just react to government policy decisions

Treasury CS Ukur Yatani holds up the briefcase containing the Budget for the 2020/22 financial year in Parliament in Nairobi on Thursday, June 10, 2021. [David Njaaga, Standard]

In January, I argued in these pages that the nation’s policy maturity hinges on its capacity to confront its past mistakes and learn from them. I challenged policymakers to view public discontent, economic missteps, and institutional failures not as nuisances, but as opportunities for reform. That challenge remains. But in the heat of the Finance Bill 2025 and by extension the Constitutional Amendment Bill 2025 debates, it is time we turn the scrutiny inward to ourselves.

A democracy is only as good as the vigilance of its citizens. Article 1 of the Kenyan Constitution declares without ambiguity: “All sovereign power belongs to the people of Kenya.” And yet, as a society, we have grown far too comfortable outsourcing this sovereignty to politicians, technocrats, and commentators, reducing civic participation to annual protests and performative outrage on social media. This abdication comes at a cost. Bad policy does not survive because of malice alone but also thrives in the shadows of public apathy.