Helicopters all over but no food on the table

An helicopter keeping surveillance during Saba Saba protest in Kitengela on July 7th 2025. (Collins Oduor, Standard)

Have you noticed there are perhaps more helicopters plying our skies than 2NK matatus to Nanyuki? The preferred mode of transport today - by our politicians especially - is up in the sky, where they do not have to interact with hoi polloi, who will still wake up at the crack of dawn to vote for them.

Helicopters, once reserved for emergency evacuations and military operations are now the preferred toys of the political elite. It’s no longer surprising to spot a chopper or two landing in a village schoolyard, ferrying a politician for a 15-minute speech at the opening of a cattle dip or a weekend wedding appearance. I got the impression that we had more helicopters in Maasai Mara the other day than the wildebeests the local tourists had gone to see. This unusual explosion - not of good roads or medical facilities, but of helicopters - comes at a time when the economy is lagging, when most people can barely make ends meet.