By Edris Omondi (Advocate)
edris@crimeprevention.net
There comes a time in every society when silence becomes complicity. That time is now.
The increasing normalization of political goonism in our governance structures is not only dangerous; it is a direct assault on democracy, dignity, and the moral fabric of our communities. We are witnessing a disturbing trend where elected leaders, instead of engaging in issue-based politics, resort to intimidation, hired chaos, and the weaponization of unemployed youth for political expediency.
This must stop.
It is in this context that I salute Governor Anyang’ Nyong’o. One may differ with him politically, but one cannot ignore his political discipline, intellectual uprightness, and refusal to submit to mediocrity disguised as populism. Leadership must not be reduced to theatre directed by goons and applause engineered by fear.
Politics must retain dignity.
Equally, Dr. James Nyikal deserves better. He is an honorable man. A legislator of substance, a village son, and a leader whose contribution to public service over the years commands and deserves respect. At a deeply personal moment, as he mourned and laid to rest his centenarian father – a man who lived to the remarkable age of 104, perhaps among the last of such centurions in our Kobita community and Seme at large, if not Kisumu County – basic decency should have prevailed.
Instead, politics intruded where humanity should have spoken.
What greater disrespect can one politician inflict upon another than to dishonor mourning? What kind of leadership celebrates humiliation over empathy? Funerals are sacred spaces in African society. They are not campaign grounds, nor should they be converted into battlegrounds for political score-settling.
This was not merely an insult to Dr. Nyikal’s family; it was an insult to the community itself.
The tragedy is larger than one funeral. Across the country, political actors increasingly believe it is fashionable to misuse young people as instruments of disruption. Idle youth are mobilized not for innovation, not for enterprise, not for civic engagement, but for heckling, violence, and intimidation. Their energy is rented cheaply for political survival.
This is not empowerment. It is exploitation.
A generation is being trained to believe that leadership is earned through noise rather than ideas, disruption rather than discipline, and violence rather than vision. Tomorrow, the same youth discarded after elections become the insecurity statistics we lament.
We cannot continue like this.
This is why voices from the Church and civil society matter now more than ever. Bishop Onginjo, in his recent sermon, courageously saw through the deception of political theatrics and reminded the congregation that truth must not bow to power. When the Church rises to speak truth to power, it becomes more than a place of worship – it becomes the conscience of society.
That prophetic role is urgently needed.
As we approach the 2027 General Election, civil society organizations, faith-based institutions, and community leadership structures must move beyond ceremonial election observation. Democracy cannot be defended only by sending observers on polling day while ignoring civic education for five years.
What exactly are we observing if we failed to prepare the people to make informed choices?
Election observation without sustained civic education is like arriving at a funeral with flowers after refusing to provide medicine. It is too little, too late.
The real work of democracy happens long before ballot papers are printed. It lies in educating citizens on constitutional values, ethical leadership, accountability, and issue-based politics. It lies in helping communities distinguish between leaders and opportunists, between service and spectacle.
We must teach people that leadership is not generosity at funerals, handouts at rallies, or sponsored chaos online.
Leadership is integrity.
Leadership is competence.
Leadership is restraint.
Leadership is character.
The 2027 elections must be a referendum on political maturity. Communities must reject leaders who thrive on division, intimidation, and manipulation. We must refuse to reward political hooliganism with public office.
Let us put our money where our minds are.
Let donors fund civic education with the same energy they fund election observation missions. Let religious institutions preach ethical citizenship with the same passion they preach prosperity. Let civil society return to the grassroots where democratic culture is built.
And let the youth be reclaimed – not as political weapons, but as architects of a better republic.
Political goonism is not strength. It is leadership failure.
Kenya deserves better.
And the time to demand better is now.
