A realist's take on the #RejectFinanceBill2024 movement

I’ll do you the courtesy of explicitly stating my opinion here so you don’t have to go too far to find reasons to hate me.

The #RejectFinanceBill2024 protests are less effective than we’d like, hope, and need them to be. 

Let me explain.

We’ve all seen the tweet:

The Constitution starts with a bang, proclaiming that the Kenyan people have all sovereign power and that that power shall be exercised according to The Constitution. Said Constitution also empowers the people to picket and demonstrate.

So when their elected representatives attempt to enact policies that the people are against, these people have the right to express their dissatisfaction by protesting and brandishing hashtags on social media and all else we’ve seen this past week. 

In a perfect world, the elected representatives – only in power by the choice and favor of the people – should listen to and be guided by the interests of those who gave them their positions.

In a perfect world, if your constituents are saying #RejectFinanceBill2024, you must, not even should, vote no when the matter is tabled in the National Assembly.

But, dear gentle reader, if you’ve been in this world for any significant amount of time, you’ll know that it is far from perfect.

I’ll tell you when I realized that these protests were simply kelele za chura. I was watching CNN passively when last Thursday’s demos were featured on the network.

Becky Anderson asked Trusty Larry what the likely outcome of the vote in Parliament would be, and he admitted that if the MPs voted according to their party lines as expected, the bill would pass the Second Reading stage.

My heart almost audibly dropped to the floor.

As I said, I was in the comfort of my home watching CNN (i.e., not wearing tear gas perfume in the CBD). But many of my friends, acquaintances, and colleagues were. We’d been #RejectFinanceBill2024-ing on social media from the week’s dawn. We’d made coordinated plans to occupy Parliament. We were urged to whisper the slogan into the ears of the MPs we were in bed with. (This is only slightly an exaggeration.) 

“Gen Zs are starting a revolution.” 

I’m not usually swept up in political fevers, but I’ll be the first to admit that all this expensive, widespread opposition made me believe the bill would fail decisively. But Larry crushed those hopes before the vote could even begin.

Of course, ALL HOPE IS NOT LOST. There is still ample opportunity to introduce amendments to rectify some of the bill’s more punitive clauses. But what we are left to do now is #AmendFinanceBill2024, and that process, too, appears to be headed to the grand destination of nowhere… if we keep doing the same thing repeatedly, expecting a different outcome. (Einstein described this as insanity.)

A group of leaders who consider increasingly taxing bread a valid course of action to… do anything, are not people you will scare into changing their vote by chanting on the streets.

A group of leaders who will assassinate and kidnap and imprison dissenters are not intimidated by seven days of rage.

A government that mandates its police force to violently suppress peaceful protests is not a reasonable government and will not be swayed by reasonable arguments, however loud and far-reaching they are.

This administration comprises maniacally self-interested people who are being rewarded – and will continue benefiting handsomely – from not doing what you want them to do. They gain more from accepting the bill than they lose from ignoring you.

You cry #RejectFinanceBill2024; they see the bill as a way to remain in the good graces of their party’s patriarch, possibly not get killed, and add unjustified zeroes to their bank balances. Of course such a person will vote “Yes.” Of course such a person will not cower under the fickle glow of your hashtags and coordinated demos.

So, what’s an agitated Kenyan to do to speak the language of the gluttonous clowns that form their government?

Glad you asked.

Here are a couple of actions I’ve heard people suggesting:

1. Boycott the businesses of consenting MPs

Several lists of profitable companies belonging, wholly or in part, to MPs who voted yes on Thursday are floating online. Wanna hit them where it hurts and increase your chances of getting heard? Use your KES.

2. Recall the Judases

This is another HUGE step that not enough people are talking about, and I don’t understand why. Get these jokers out of office. 

They are doing all this to retain power and wealth. Raise the stakes by spending more time depriving them of the two rather than (or in addition to – your body, your choice) getting blasted by tear gas tomorrow.

Concerns have been raised that there are no grounds for an MP recall based on their votes on parliamentary matters. 

If those aren’t tangible grounds to get your treacherous MP out of office, I don’t know what are.

Unfortunately, MP recall is one of those cute Constitutional concepts that hasn’t seen much practical application despite the numerous elected reps who qualify for a swift demotion. Kenyans . co . ke blames it on the “procedural technicalities as aligned in the Constitution and Elections Act.”

But if we redirect even a fraction of our enthusiasm on the streets to proactively navigating those procedural technicalities, our “representatives” won’t know what hit them.

3. For the love of God, vote in 2027

I used to be (phew!) one of those “My one vote, haka tu? Katafanya nini?” After everything we’ve been through under this administration, I don't think I need to tell anyone how flawed that logic is. 

Please, improve your political literacy, go out, and vote. Encourage your parents and siblings and neighbors to do the same. Slide into your ex’s DMs, reminding them to vote. (All 5 of them.)

There is power in numbers, and not the numbers of protesters heading to occupy sijui where. Numbers that show up in droves to tangibly show our leaders – past, present, and future – that hatutabebwa ufala.

The pessimist in me is telling me the next most viable option may be just as bad as the last, that he, too, fueled by self-interest, may institutionalize remarkably destructive policies.

But then I remember that we don’t yet know that for sure. Our hesitancy is largely based on the propaganda of opposing factions and the memory of historical leadership ills. 

My plea? Let’s give someone else a chance. Not the most energetic rallying call, but here we are. 

He may end up being our next Kibaki. (RIP Emilio, you was a real one.). And even if he doesn’t, at least then we’ll know hatuna viongozi hapo. Equipped with knowledge, we’ll stage something similar in the lead-up to 2032, 2037, 2042… till we get it right.

I’m glad I’m not writing to people rooted in the tribal alliances of old that threatened this nation's foundational fabric.

Our generation has bigger fish to fry: using our minds, our votes, our wallets, our energy, our time, and our voices efficiently to find and empower leaders more concerned with this country’s prosperity than their preposterous agendas. 

4. Invite Anonymous afanye ile kitu. :)

This is a real text someone sent me in response to some recall/voting/parliamentary process info I posted on my status on Friday:

Admittedly, I had not commented on the demos or the cause preceding those posts, and before you hate me again, I’ll tell you what I told my friend there: I didn’t have anything valuable to add to the conversation. 

I do not consider saying #RejectFinanceBill2024 on social media valuable.

I do not consider “occupying” parliament or state house (or the roads there… because that’s as far as the police will let me reach) valuable.

I do not consider marching in the streets and documenting my ill-fated journey for all of Instagram to see valuable. 

Especially not if that’s the be-all and end-all of my political action.

So I’ll keep my mouth (and fingers) shut as I educate myself on what’s actually going on in these people’s heads wakisema they want their wives to get hundreds of millions in public funding…

And more troubling, what persuades a non-zero number of people to welcome these ridiculous expenditures.

Then and only then will I share what I feel would move the needle toward building the Kenya we want to see.

I wear many professional hats, but the one that’s most influenced this line of thinking is copywriting.

A cardinal sin beginner copywriters commit is not speaking their prospects’ language. This sin comes in many shapes and sizes:

1. applying unnecessarily showy techniques to get their attention,

2. using messaging that sounds clever but doesn’t actually resonate with their needs or pains, 

3. ignoring their stage of awareness/sophistication level (i.e., are they in a place where my product/solution/ad can cut through the noise? If not, where are they, and how can I meet them there?)

They’re common errors because we’re all woefully stuck in our POVs. What we see and how we think is the bulk of what we know. But when attempting to convince someone who isn’t us, we must become extremely good at exiting our limited perspectives and seeing things as they do. 

The result will be less sexy, more subtle, and may bore us half to death were it applied to us. It won’t fit neatly into a slogan or a hashtag. It’ll momentarily make us feel less in control of an increasingly chaotic situation.

But this isn’t about us. It's even less about what makes us feel good in the moment.

If we improve our perspective-taking, we will be victorious in the long run.

As you think of more ways to meet these traitors where they are, you may find these pointers useful:

• Wear their shoes.

• Try to understand their unique worldviews.

• What pressures do they experience in their day-to-day lives?

• What do they care most about?

• What can’t they stand to lose?

Craft your action plans on the back of this information.

Congratulations, you’ve just got your prospect to listen to (and buy from!) you. For real this time.

I’m not discouraging people from marching and being outraged and posting if that makes them feel better. Just understand that that’s just you letting out cold, inaudible steam. 

The real work? Those three abovementioned actions (and others your creative, educated minds come up with) that have a better chance of success. 

Balance your ratios ifaavyo – march for an hour, then go door to door collecting recall signatures for two. Post the hashtags alafu haraka haraka find and promote substitutes for the MPs’ businesses. Be the first in line at your polling station in August 2027. This, my friends, is how Kenya wins.

By a Kenyan, for Kenyans,

Kessentials.