Believe me, dear reader, Nairobi protests under the labels #RejectFinanceBill2024 and the #OccupyParliament movement had me in tears -- tears of joy.
I continue to watch in absolute admiration and inspiration. I know a fire does not burn one homestead; it normally spreads to the entire neighbourhood. I am hopeful this fire will reach the neighbouring homesteads in Kampala.
If Nairobians and Kenyans more generally found the 2024 Finance Bill the reason for protest, then Ugandans have a tonne of things to stir us into revolt. Peaceful revolt, I should add. The Kenya 2024 Finance Bill threatens more taxes. Ugandans have been taxed to the last bone, while at the same time our money is shared like loot.
Ugandans live under a crippling, corrosive mess. It is not just taxation without accountability, but with extremely annoying, arrogant and dangerous people. They don't care about the stress the ordinary person goes through to eke out an existence.
All they want is serving foreign interests and their stomachs. Small dreams and small pleasures. But setting the reasons that provoked the Kenyan protests aside, many things stand out and are heartwarming, and inspiring.
Dear reader, for some time now, I have been writing about how our so-called independent African countries continue being colonial outposts in this present time. I have written about how the current forms of pillage of our continent (1990-onwards) are worse than what happened under direct colonialism -- especially since it is deftly hidden from public view.
I have written about how the new Captain Lugard and Sir Harry Johnston in town are institutions; specifically the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Sadly, however, saying and naming the graft of these institutions (IMF and World Bank) in Kampala tends to sound like science fiction, like conspiracy theory.
Because the IMF and the World Bank have mastered the art of disguised, perfected indirect rule. Ugandans don't see them. The same is true of numerous European and American organisations disguised under the sleek language of purporting to push democracy and human rights
through cash grants.
All we see is Museveni and his co-conspirators I skipped several heartbeats watching Kenyans cut through this maze. Their newly minted president, William Ruto, is seen both as background noise, and a colonial emissary.
This is true of his mentor down here in Kampala, Yoweri Museveni. Kenyans took the streets and explicitly stated: "IMF is my enemy," "We ain't IMF b*****s," "F**k US Embassy." Numerous short videos, cartoons and memes lampooned the IMF, and foreign embassies in Nairobi.
This language remains entirely ambivalent in Kampala. Yes, our tax policies in many of these weak-headed colonial outposts is written by the IMF and the World Bank.
Yes, the protests are directly targeting the sitting president, whose agency and ingrained inferiority complex cannot be dismissed. (We miss seeing the inferiority complex about his mentor in Kampala).
But the protestors have not lost sight of the puppet masters pulling the strings from behind. Warning shots have been sent to the IMF. Something like, we see you. We are coming for you. Our president, William Ruto is simply a powerful dancing puppet on the stage. Kenya brought tears to my eyes.
The second heartwarming item is both the generational age of the protestors and their bravery. A Kenyan friend of mine said to me that our generation, the millennials (I am not sure I am one) were raised on a culture of fear and extreme caution, and the Gen-Zs were raised on a tradition of courage.
They have taken the mantra; "the youth are the future straight up." They have been told there are no limits to what they can achieve.
"You can be whatever you want to be." "Don't fear. Be brave," they have been constantly reminded. And they have taken
their lessons seriously.
Ironically, the phone-makers have made a killing producing more photo filters, and apps to keep the Gen-Z generation distracted and entertained. We all called them "good-for- only-partying" folks. But then the economy catches up with everybody and all of a sudden, the apps are the tools of mobilisation.
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And these youngsters are streaming and ass-shaking their revolution. Oh boy, they are brave. Kampala is watching and with the many folks on the typical Gen-Z app, TikTok, the future looks brighter.
Powerfully-exposed in these protests is that politicians -- one either side of the isle --need to be exposed and endlessly kept in check. Don't trust any of them, even those claiming to be opposition. And once they mess up, make them feel the pain of their decisions.
Boycott them, stop them from talking to you, dis-invite them from public functions, insult them. These Kenyan youngsters are living up to the dream of urban revolution. Indeed, Kampala has followed suit.
Upping the game, our corrupt dis-honourables' and their intellectual lackeys are feeling the pain after having their phone numbers out in the open. They can buy new phone numbers if they want to, but their actions and statements have to have consequences.
The author is a political theorist based at Makerere University.
