Freedom of thought and action: The Ruto factor in Kenyan political space

Political players and scientists give projections that can be proved either right or wrong by the citizens in ways that shape the destiny of a country. In third world countries like Kenya, the outside world, especially the super powers like USA view them as pronouncers rather than practitioners of democracy. Each election cycle, they go beyond giving travel advisories against either parts of the country or the entire country over fear of fights, political feuds and insecurity to question the potential of the country to carry our free, fair and credible elections, and of course charting her way forward after the highly contested elections. Kenya, a country that has had a share of her own challenges during elections and her democracy is put on trial on every five years has not been spared in this game of perceptions and manipulation.

The promulgation of the new constitution in 2010 served as a game changer. This constitution created room for decentralization of governance through devolution. It created room for citizen involvement in leadership in governance as guided by the bill of rights as empowered by article 1 of the constitution and created and protected public institutions that have since been instrumental in putting the government and civil servants on toes, public involvement through public participation on matters of development, legislation and any change to the constitution. Citizens feel part and parcel of all that takes place in the country and well placed to hold their leaders accountable at ease. The growth in technology has promoted this even more. Divisive elements like tribalism and corruption receive a good share of negative criticism at the social space like Twitter to the extent that leaders are left with no option but to serve all taxpayers as guided by the law.

Even though political parties are deemed to have strong bases in specific regions, each elections weaken these boundaries from time to time. The sense of patriotism is enhanced especially when leaders, just as citizens move and stay anywhere just as they can engage each other using any channel and medium to the betterment of both personal and social life. This freedom is the only solution to a form of neo-colonialism where a society is held at ransom to the benefit of a few who package themselves as their defenders. This nature of hypocrisy is condemned by action and word to the benefit of the society by enjoying our freedom thought and action.