Letter to Sudi: Selective amnesia is forgetting voters and focusing on insults
By David Nthua, June 25, 2026Dear Oscar Sudi,
You have accused former President Uhuru Kenyatta of selective amnesia.
That phrase is strong, but it also invites a bigger question: what does selective amnesia mean in public leadership?
Selective amnesia is not only forgetting what someone once said about newspapers.
It is also forgetting voters after elections. It is forgetting the cost of living after the campaigns. It is forgetting young people without jobs.
It is forgetting parents struggling with school fees. It is forgetting small traders facing heavy taxes.
You are the Member of Parliament for Kapseret. That office comes with responsibility. Voters did not send you to Parliament only to join political fights.
They sent you to speak for their roads, schools, jobs, water, hospitals and daily struggles.
That is where the real test of memory begins.
A leader should remember the people who gave him power more than he remembers political insults.
A leader should speak loudly for voters with the same energy used in national political debates.
On the former President, history should be handled fairly. His government had its faults, but it also had programmes that many Kenyans still remember.
Linda Mama supported mothers seeking maternity care. Huduma Mashinani brought government services closer to ordinary citizens.
Free secondary education opened doors for many children from poor homes.
Such a record should not be dismissed lightly through political anger.
A leader who left behind visible public programmes should be debated with facts, not reduced to insults.
The same applies to the media. A story published by a newsroom should not automatically be treated as an order from a retired President or a media owner.
Journalists work under editors, ethics and public interest. If a story is wrong, answer it with facts.
If a report is unfair, challenge it with evidence. But personalising media houses weakens press freedom.
Kenya needs leaders who protect public debate, not leaders who make journalists look like enemies.
So, Hon Sudi, before speaking of selective amnesia, remember Kapseret. Remember the voters. Remember the promises made to Kenyans.
Remember that leadership is not measured by how sharply one attacks others, but by how faithfully one serves the people.