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Shocked to the core in a world of conflicts where the mighty and powerful annihilate the weak and vulnerable, where dictatorship reigns over democracy, it is time to speak up for the downtrodden.

Despotic and repressive trends are not confined to the global stage. Leaders of so-called developing countries professing to uphold democracy have perfected the art of political deception and dubious constitutional manipulation to deceive, subdue and exploit their citizens.

Voices of reason must bear the cudgel to challenge and dispel the miserably perverted notion that only those wielding donated power or weapons of mass destruction have a right to nature’s gifts to humanity or the trappings of State instruments.

Images emanating from Gaza and Ukraine paint the pain and agony of a tragically ungodly scenario where human life is reduced to an inhumane eerily unscrupulous geopolitical and ideological war. There is a distressing dearth of hygiene in the national and international political culture.

In Kenya, cold-hearted forced evictions and destruction from the disputed land involving East African Portland Cement Ltd and residents, evictions from Mau Forest, and the county government’s hostile takeover of Nakuru War Memorial Hospital endangering critically ill patients, are equally shocking.
These are local examples of the law of power, ignorance and political rhetoric trumping over natural justice and human rights.

Where conceited leadership and the justice system interprets the law to breach the moral boundaries of conscience and depravity. The oppressed and the exploited must rise up and demand an end to destructive illusory obsession with absolute power, criminal incompetence by governments, leadership of malicious intent and practice, and a politically weakened working class.

Emerging from the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic that universally united humanity in combating the greatest threat to life this century, wielders of power, arms, political deceit and economic manipulation are back with a vengeance.

Scourge forgotten, they ignite conflict, adding convoluted hubris to issues threatening the longevity of our species on earth – nuclear annihilation, climate catastrophe and social collapse. Looming perils of extinction are real and though preventing them from being actualised are daunting tasks, they cannot be deferred. Limited arms control treaties are being shredded as the major powers sit on nuclear weapons ominously capable of making our planet uninhabitable.

Add the danger of the climate catastrophe. Major powers have failed to shift from fossil fuels to commit to the “common but differentiated responsibilities” ratified in the Paris Agreement of 2015.

Even though they produce a tiny fraction of global gas emissions, funds committed to developing countries for their participation in the process have virtually dried up. External debt has ballooned, demonstrating a basic lack of seriousness from the international community.

Analysts aver countries in the West have effectively eviscerated their public function and the state has been turned over to profiteers and civil society commodified by private foundations, grotesquely hampering avenues for social transformation in the developing world. An enterprise fondly embraced by local conceited arrogant politically unhygienic partners who brazenly espouse corruption and impunity while pointing accusing fingers at the victims!

Cunning manipulation of democracy and other arms of government results in terrible economic and social inequality. This weakness enables billionaires to create policies that perpetuate hunger, injustices and inequities.

The world needs to galvanize action to stop this prejudiced generation from sustaining their greedy short-term existential illusions of grandeur that imperil the fate of our children and grandchildren.

— The writer comments on global and governance issues. [email protected]