By Edris Omondi (Advocate)
Edris Omondi is a lawyer and a crime prevention practitioner and the Executive Director of the Crime Prevention Initiative Trust (CPIT), Kisumu. He works on behavioral approaches to crime prevention, governance, and social policy.
When Politics Burns Humanity: A Nation Must Pause Before 2027
History is full of painful reminders of what happens when politics stops being about ideas and begins defining who deserves dignity, safety, or even life itself. In the early 1990s, the genocide in Rwanda did not begin with machetes. It began with words, labels, hatred, political division, and the dangerous normalization of seeing fellow citizens as enemies instead of neighbors.
Closer home, Kenya’s own 2007–2008 post-election violence remains one of the darkest chapters in our national memory. Communities that had lived together for generations suddenly turned against each other. Churches became places of fear. Homes were torched. Thousands were displaced. Over a thousand lives were lost.
Many Kenyans swore then: Never again.
Yet today, as the country slowly inches toward the 2027 elections, worrying signs of political intolerance are re-emerging. Social media hostility is growing sharper. Public discourse is becoming more toxic. Political identity is increasingly being treated like tribal identity; something to fight over, defend aggressively, and sometimes punish.
The recent incident involving gospel singer Rachael Wandeto should disturb the conscience of the nation. Reports indicate that she allegedly became a victim of arson, possibly because she bore a tattoo associated with President William Ruto. Whether one supports or opposes the President is beside the point. No political disagreement should ever justify violence, intimidation, destruction of property, or threats to life.
And that is where Kenya must draw a firm line.
A tattoo is not a death sentence. Political support is not a crime. Opposition is not treason. Democracy demands that citizens be free to express themselves without fear of mob justice or politically charged retaliation.
Sadly, there are already voices saying, “She deserved it.” Those statements are perhaps even more dangerous than the act itself. They reveal how deeply hatred has penetrated public thinking. Once society begins rationalizing violence against people because of their political beliefs, it starts walking a very dangerous road. Today it is a tattoo. Tomorrow it may be a T-shirt, a social media post, a tribe, a surname, or simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Political intolerance rarely arrives dramatically. It grows slowly; through jokes that normalize hatred, leaders who inflame emotions irresponsibly, online propaganda, selective outrage, and silence from good people.
Yes, silence from good people.
Kenya cannot afford to sleepwalk into another season of politically instigated violence.
The bitter truth is that ordinary citizens suffer together regardless of political affiliation.
When fuel prices rise, every Kenyan feels the pressure. When floods destroy homes, victims come from every political side. When unemployment rises, hunger does not ask who voted for who! National disasters do not discriminate between government supporters and opposition loyalists.
Lest we forget, we are one people-KENYA- before we are political camps.
Institutions tasked with protecting national unity therefore deserve stronger support. The National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) must be adequately funded and empowered to intensify civic education, peace campaigns, community dialogue, and early warning interventions ahead of 2027. Their work should not only emerge during crises or election periods. Cohesion must become a continuous national culture.
Religious leaders, musicians, civil society organizations, schools, and the media also carry a responsibility. In that responsibility they also need adequate support to broadcast national cohesion. Political disagreement should be taught as normal in a democracy, not as grounds for hostility. Young people especially must be protected from manipulation by leaders who weaponize anger for political gain.
Kenya was once proudly described as a God-fearing nation. That identity is tested not by how loudly we pray, but by how humanely we treat one another when we disagree. A society that burns homes because of politics cannot claim moral victory over those it condemns.
The approach to the 2027 elections must therefore become a season of maturity, not madness. Leaders across the political divide must speak responsibly, and any irresponsible utterances should be penalized. Supporters must reject provocation. Citizens must learn to separate political competition from personal hatred.
The lesson from 2007 is clear: it is far easier to ignite division than to heal it afterward.
No election is worth the blood of a Kenyan. No politician is worth destroying a neighbor over political indifference. No political symbol should ever become justification for violence.
Kenya must choose humanity before politics.
Because once hatred becomes normal, everybody eventually loses.
