It's wrong for politicians to turn disaster zones into campaign platforms

Work continues at the site of an 18-storey building that collapsed in Eastleigh, Nairobi, as four bodies are recovered on November 5, 2026. [Wilberforce Okwiri, Standard]

There is something deeply performative about the African political class and tragedy. Somewhere between the sirens, blood stains and cries of ordinary citizens, a convoy of black SUVs inevitably appears — and lately, helicopters. Men in dark suits jump out. Police officers begin shouting. Roads are blocked. Cameras are repositioned. Suddenly, the dead, the injured and the traumatised become secondary characters in a carefully choreographed theatre of power.

Kenya has mastered this grotesque ritual.