Since the eruption of the protests in Tunisia which toppled the former President for life Zine El Abidine Ben Ali there have been calls on twitter for Kenyans to take on streets and do something similar. Demonstrations and protests. To be precise some are asking why can’t Kenyans do the same thing, yet we have same problems as our brothers and sisters from the north. High unemployment rates, corruption, food inflation and many more. So the idea of Kenya Feb 28 came up, a day that people would go to the streets and demonstrate. I am not sure who started it but i know it failed without taking off. The reaction to it on twitter was fast and furious. Marked by name calling, insults, and it reached a point, i just had to log off from twitter. Yeah Facebook welcomed me back with two hands and even legs . So what really went wrong with the idea of KenyaFeb28? Here some of the reasons according to me:
1. Kenyans have been there, seen it all and done it all. Remember 1991-92, then came the big one where Moi was evicted from State house in 2002. When things did go as expected in 2007 again Kenyans were on the streets in 2008. So the notion that Egypt and Tunisia are having a sweeter protests and demonstrations is somehow misguided. Truth be told Egypt and Tunisia are 20 years behind Kenya.
2. Moi ruled Kenya for 24 years and he is the last do so regardless. Now we have elections after every five years and the current Government has only one year to go. If you are tired of whatever you are tired of when comes to the current Government then you just have to wait and vote them out next year. Now any argument otherwise is not making sense unless there is another agenda apart from democracy. The young people who think they can lead should come up with a plan on what they will do for people. What will be different, how they will eradicate poverty, how you will tackle corruption, how you will create jobs, how you will tax people and what you will do with it, the vision for schools, health care programs . Present that to the people and let them discuss the merits, refine and sell it, kama wewe tosha tutakupigia kura.
3. What is going on in Tunisia can easily be replicated in Egypt due to the geographical location, cultural inclination , religion and many others. The same can’t be said of Kenya. Look at the way it started in Egypt or Tunisia, someone burning himself on the street, who on earth can do that in Kenya? Forget about it.
4. You can never mobilize people with message of either you are with us or with the enemy. You know, the kind of it is my way or the highway. Bush tried it with Iraq and you all know how that went. Name calling and insults will never bring people together to do something big. Plus people must have that inner burning passion and there must be a clear well defined message. After 2008 people felt cheated and the anger was there. At least then it was easy for them to go to the streets. Egyptians want Mubarak to go after being in power for 30 years, full stop. How about Kenya, do we want Kibaki and Raila to go while they are remaining with only one year to share the fake powers? We also know that Kibaki will definitely retire after that.
5. Kenya is tribal nation, whether you want to accept it or not. That does not mean people are stupid, it is just the way they are. So before you tell people to go to the streets you have to explain to them who you are targeting. At the corner there you might look at Kibaki as bad leader or failed leader but people from his tribe will not see that. You might consider Raila a populist but people from his tribe have different opinion. You might look at Kalonzo as “kaloser” withuot any concrete position on anything, relying on the divine intervention but people from his tribe see a different picture. You might not want to associate with Ruto and Uhuru because of their shoddy past but to some of their tribesmen and women, it is a political witch hunt. So be careful
6. Twitter and Facebook in Kenya are places for the middle class, well educated lot and kids from well off backgrounds. These are people who are somehow comfortable on their skins and value stability over chaos. They may support the idea but in reality they will not take to the streets. If you want people to go to the street, get a way to communicate with guys in Kibera , Mathare, Kawangware, else Good Luck
7. If by any chance you were old enough and had owned a business in the year 2008 in Kenya then you seriously understand the repercussion of the street protests. It is important that we work to reform our institutions to avoid that happening again for ever and ever.
8. In Egypt and Tunisia the police is in the side of the people. May be not but at least they look like professionals who respect human lives. I don’t think you can say that about Kenya after what happened in 2008.
9. Yesterday i spoke to an old man in the same age brackets as the like of Uhuru, Ruto, Kalonzo and he told me they are the “old youth”. So the young youth have to wait because they are not mature enough. Plus to him politics is about who have the money. If the old youth want people to go to the street, the people they control will go. They have the money to ensure that happen while the young youth have nothing.
10..heheheh
Kachwanya, I read some people's outburst on twitter and wondered what the hell was wrong with them. Surely, did they expect anything from it? I believe that 90% of those who were for the idea would never go to the streets to demonstrate. And you have the reasons up there. Some people, I guess, have their ass up their heads and never think of what they do or say. Kudos for the brilliant article. You out them where they belong.
Brilliant
'Moi was evicted from State house in 2002.'
Moi was not evicted from State House, his term ended.
Good post though, middle class will never take to the streets, they have a lot to lose and are too comfy.
Also Tunisia and Egypt uprising was spontaneous. In Kenya we are planning for Feb 28, imagine the GSU that will be waiting for us
Yeah, well put, i seriously had issues with #feb28 considering we have a great chance of voting anybody we want out. Whats the meaning of having a revolution before implementing the new constitution? In-fact an election is better, and more safe.
100%..If we can't vote for people based on issues, then there is no way Kenyans can overlook the tribal factor and revolt based on issues.Its silly to vote in a new constitution and not give it a chance.
This article hits the nail on the head..Kenyans have been pushed and pushed..changed by force is not something that appeals to the bulk of us!
I tell u pps BEYOND FEB28 there is gonna be no more pleading with those leaders. Am also in the campagne for change.
Dude, this is one of the more brilliant ones! Wow!
Brilliant insight, I don't feel that the situations are similar, we cannot replicate what happened in Egypt & Tunisia
Excellent article… We have too many boundaries in Kenya , I do not think that we would ever come to that point of fighting against a common enemy… we need to eradicate all these boundaries ..mainly the boundaries drawn by tribe and religion before we even think of going to the battle field.. otherwise we will continue slaying each other , forgetting the enemy… Call me a pessimist, but that's just how it is… we are never going to fight for our country as one as long as tribalism thrives in us..
Again, excellent article …
I'll join everyone else in toasting to this great post. Wow! Brilliant! Insightful! Amazing! Nothing quite like this.
That said, I still insist, hats off to whoever came up with #KenyaFeb28. While others think it was a schtupid idea, or one before/beyond its time, it was an idea nonetheless and it takes courage (and a little display of madness) to front radical ideas especially in such a public forum as Twitter. Since the anonymous tweep is assumed to come from as you say "the middle class, well educated lot of kids from well off backgrounds", he/she must have thought about the backlash and the buckets of cold water majority of tweeps hurled his/her way. But guess what he/she still went ahead and tweeted their notion of a revolution, no matter how immature.
Now, on point no.10 (yes, your snigger of laughter):-
Anyone who hangs around twitter long enough can sense the air of importance with which tweeps carry themselves.And yes, they are justified to do so. They're among a select 18,000 out of a possible 40million Kenyans who've figured out Twitter and how Facebook sucks monkey balls when compared to it. These same folks, in their little numbers have turned the world's spotlight on Kenya with such trending topics based as #KCPE2010 and #Makmenede. And for that, most tweeps feel like an indomitable force. But then I ask, when will tweeps ever do something significant using Twitter? When will we put our education, as is displayed on our witty tweets and great blogs, to right at least one wrong in this country? Or are we too comfortable with our well off backgrounds and our middle calls living? Middle class is nothing but average by the way – mediocre if you like. Do we have to be subjected to the poverty that the "guys in Kibera , Mathare, Kawangware etc" experience, to rise up and make a difference? And is that how we will always think of these 'slum' dwellers- as the perfect protesters, who we will send to the front lines against the dreaded GSU while we happily seat at home and tweet away about how on of them just got shot by a "stray" bullet? Lord, don't we love each other in this country!! Here are talking about tribalism and how we should eradicate it and yet, we still hold prejudices against "the guys in Kibera , Mathare, Kawangware etc" like they don't fear the GSU, like they don't value their own lives no matter how miserable we imagine their lives are. Yeah, let's go ahead and communicate to them. It's this attitude among tweeps, twitterati, tweeple that make your point no. 10 stand out. We are a laughable lot. And until we do something significant to change the wrongs in this country, we will only be a joke. And until we do something significant, perhaps crazy (like light ourselves on fire), I hope we all take time to laugh at ourselves.
Another reason why we can't go to the streets is that unlike those in Egypt and Tunisia we have outlets…People may hate with passion the human rights activists but they are one of the widely used outlet when things go hay wire… We also have a constitution that allows us to take even the executive to court and they have ruled against the executive … We also haven't reached the state of Egypt ..Imagine a nation without a constitution ..and a nation which has been in a state of emergency for 25 years ..we aint near that..
the guys who were behind the #Feb28 thing must be the ones who Kalamashaka talked of when they sang "wanadungilia Tshirt za Che Guevarra wanajidai marevolutionaries" ..You don't become a revolutionary by donning a Che Guevarra T shirt
We crossed the bridge where Egypt and Tunisia are in 1990/91 and learned how to use it in 2002. We are past the stage of revolutions whose ideas are not even well articulated. If we can mobilize to the level of Tunisia/Egypt, it means we can achieve the same results using the ballot box. I am active on twitter but personally I find most of the conversation there rather a bit vain, I mean of what use have been those so callled global trending topics? What Feb28 can do is maybe use that opportunity to drum up support for certain ideas/people that will culminate in the overthrow of this regime in 2012 at the ballot box…
If #KenaFeb28 has some violent undertones, then forget it. As most of the previous guys have just said, Kenya is not in that space for violent ousts, for one, we have too much to lose individually, we have avenues, namely democratic and free and fair elections. So, instead of throwing a grenade in the name of a revolt, we use a precision instrument in the name of an election. Granted, we will live with our choice for 5 years. However, if #Kenyafeb28 is supposed to remind us of our patriotic duty to be proud of our country, in a non-violent way of course, then I have no qualms about it.
The post is great. Still, being a kenyan having lived in Kenya all my life, and having been subjected to all the shenanigans of this political class, I totally understand where #KenyaFeb28 comes from. These fellas are the scum, the …words fail me. I always find it difficult to carry out a civil conversation about our politicians. What I've never understood is how one's conscience allows them to sleep at night, knowing they've basically screwed up the lives of a whole generation of people and daily continue to do so. Countries work hard to invest in the future generations, they make projections 50 years into the future. Here we're so selfish we only think of our lifetimes, like our grand kids won't live in this country. A sad sad state of affairs. But then again, every time I get mad at politicians, I remember that they were actually voted into office. That's when I lose hope. How you can go stand in the line for hours to vote for some of the biggest thugs is beyond me. Do you really need to have gotten a PhD to realize that a thug in government will do what thugs do? Screw you up and plunder the seed that should have been sown for your posterity? I'm not excited about elections because well, if we are so passionate about defending the current crop of politicians just because they're from our community, there's no point. And there's no point of #Kenyafe28 either, except maybe to just express all the pent up anger and frustration at the whole system, so I can go on with life as it is. Coz going by the way things are, it ain't changing any time soon. Alternatively, I'll keep off all local news channels, and political sections of our dailies (which is basically all sections, save for obituaries). Maybe then I can keep my sanity. Now having done my quarterly venting, I'm good for another four months. Thanks for the forum!!