So there’s this report that came out the other day, and as a history student I can assure you that if it is not taken seriously by the powers that be, it will very soon become a recipe for disaster (revolution) in the near future.
If you Google the main causes of revolutions, you will find that the major contributing factors are economic hardship and inequality.
The great Greek philosopher Aristotle once stated that extreme wealth inequality (in any country) is one of the major causes of political revolution. He further emphasised that the most stable nation is one with a large middle class.
In Kenya today, the middle class is gradually but steadly being eroded by excessive taxation, numerous levies, systemic corruption, financial strain, and declining purchasing power.
When a majority of citizens become unable to meet their basic needs - what Maslow termed physiological and safety needs, or when their efforts to meet those needs are frustrated by the system, they automatically become violent. This is exactly what happened in Kenya in the 1950s with the Mau Mau revolution against the colonial government and the minority white settlers.
In the future (and if things don’t change), a new generation of poor but well-informed Kenyans will rise up and overthrow this neo-colonial system that has kept many Kenyans in bondage and it’s not a matter of if but when.
“Fear a man who has nothing to lose, for he who loves nothing, fears nothing.”