The foundational fiction of modern governance lies in tatters. We are witnessing an intentional transformation of our state structures, where citizenship has been reduced to a mere lottery of survival.
Stomachs Filled, Leadership Silent
Kenya has updated the concept of misgovernance for the twenty-first century. This is no longer a banana republic; it is a goon republic. It is a state where the fruit of political power is harvested not by foreign corporations but by domestic gangs, and where the currency is not dollars but total impunity.
Citizens have surrendered their rights to the state in exchange for protection; the state has taken those rights and completely abdicated its responsibility. The result? A population left to navigate a terrifying domain of organized violence—unsure whether the next stone thrown, the next road blocked, or the next robbery at gunpoint will be directed at them.
Meanwhile, the government remains silent, as long as their own stomachs are filled.
Outsource Violence, Privatized Coercion
The Interior Cabinet Secretary, the self-proclaimed guardian of national security, remains conspicuously absent from the actual scenes of violence. The preference instead is to hide behind defensive press releases and issue threats to peaceful protesters.
When the police choose to act at all, they act not to protect citizens but to harass them, leaving well-paid, emboldened goons to continue their work unimpeded.
Make no mistake: the Goon State is not a failure of governance. It is a deliberate choice. It is a calculated decision to outsource violence, to privatise coercion, and to plunge us into a Hobbesian nightmare.
We must reject this manufactured chaos. The social contract must be restored.