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A protester lobs back a teargas canister at police during protests against the Finance Bill 2024 in Nairobi on June 25, 2024. [ AFP]
The digital airwaves have recently been thick with a familiar, unsettling anxiety. Social media posts, like a widely shared reflection by Mwangi Khimani, warn of a calculated political strategy: whenever the current regime faces an existential crisis, be it economic mismanagement, skyrocketing fuel prices, or the fierce, organic wrath of Gen Z protests, a specific, tired scapegoat is hauled into the public square.
The narrative pushed by high-ranking officials, critics argue, is an attempt to resurrect the infamous “41 against 1” playbook by isolating the Kikuyu community as the supposed architects of national misfortune.
For those who lived through the trauma of the 2007 Post Election Violence, these patterns raise immediate alarm. When senior figures seem to echo the same talking points, fear grows that history is preparing to repeat itself.
