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As a Kenyan, discussing police brutality in America and being up in arms about it feels disingenuous because the same thing, if not on an even more gruesome scale occurs constantly in our own country and most of us tend to be silent, turn a blind eye and continue to be complacent
The only difference is that for us it’s not so much a matter of race, but class. Poor Kenyans are terrorized by the police regularly and yet we seldom ever see justice for them because we’ve convinced ourselves that our system is broken beyond repair.
This is not the case. Neopatrimonialism thrives because of one significant element: a complacent, seldom politically involved middle class. Because of us, those living in poverty who’s lives are controlled by an authoritarian like government continue to be exploited and harmed.
We are the liberal whites of the Kenyan system. We are the ones who actually could have the power and the influence to hold the government and it’s institutions and bureaucracies accountable but we refuse to because we don’t wish to sacrifice our comfort and lifestyles
We continue to call out Kenyans who willfully ignore covid-19 restrictions because they could be putting others at risk, but do we recognize the sheer class privilege that allows them to get away with it?
Yasin Moyo was a 13 year old boy shot in the chest on his balcony, just MINUTES after curfew by a police officer who claims it was a ‘stray bullet’. There was mild media coverage for a couple of days and then nothing. Where was our outrage then?
Khamisi Juma was a boda boda driver who took a pregnant woman to the hospital after the set curfew hours, only to be met with death from the hands of the police in Kwale for violating curfew restrictions.
Countless others, whose names we don’t know and let’s be honest, do not bother to learn are being abused and killed at the hands of our terrorist police force. Americans went to war for their own within 24 hours. When will we start doing the same?
