Commentary

Aug

01

2026

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By Makozewe

44 Years After the 1982 Coup: Kenya Changed Presidents But Preserved the System

Commentary1982 coup kenya, featured, featurednews, Hezekiah Ochuka, Kenya Politics

Every August 1, Kenya confronts the memory of one of the most turbulent episodes in its post-independence history. On that date in 1982, junior Kenya Air Force servicemen led by Senior Private Hezekiah Ochuka attempted to overthrow President Daniel arap Moi. The rebellion collapsed within hours, leaving death, destruction, mass arrests and a political atmosphere saturated with fear. Forty-four years later, the coup should neither be romanticised as a popular revolution nor dismissed as the irrational adventure of disgruntled soldiers. It was an explosive symptom of a deeper national crisis: authoritarian government, institutional discrimination, restricted political participation, concentrated wealth and…

Jul

15

2026

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By Makozewe

Broke Nation, Fat Government: The Curse of the Capitalist State

Commentary, Newscapitalism, featured, featurednews, kenya, kenyastockholm, makozewe, okoth osewe, stockholm

Kenya is not a poor country—it is a country where poverty has become policy. Agriculture contributes roughly 20% of GDP and employs millions, yet food prices remain painfully high. More than 80% of Kenyan workers survive in the informal economy, often without stable income or social protection, while an estimated 800,000 young people enter the job market every year with too few formal jobs waiting. At the same time, public debt has climbed beyond KSh 11 trillion, and every new budget seems to demand higher taxes instead of higher production. Ordinary Kenyans are told to tighten their belts while the…

Mar

01

2026

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By Makozewe

The Invisible War: How US and Israeli Intelligence Could Have Tracked and Eliminated Iran’s Supreme Leader

Commentaryayatollah, featured, featurednews, iran, israel, kenya stockholm, okoth osewe, politics, supreme leader

The Assassination of the Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, could only happen through total intelligence domination. The killing was not the result of chance, nor merely the consequence of air superiority. It represented the culmination of a vast, invisible war—one fought through satellites orbiting silently above the earth, spies embedded within the inner sanctums of power, signals intercepted in milliseconds, and alliances forged across continents. Such an operation required more than weapons; it required omniscience. To locate and strike the most protected political figure in the Islamic Republic—inside Tehran, under layers of military, intelligence, and ideological protection—demanded the full…

Feb

26

2026

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By Makozewe

The Two-Term Calculus: Why ODM Is Quietly Aligning With Power In A System Where Ballots Burn, And Bullets Decide

Commentaryfeatured, featurednews, kenya, kenya stockholm, Kenyan politics, oburu oginga, ODM, okoth osewe, orange democratic movement, politics, william ruto

The sudden gravitational pull of ODM leaders toward the “Two Term” agenda is not confusion. It is not cowardice. It is memory. It is survival. It is the cold arithmetic of political trauma accumulated over decades in a republic where ballots are ceremonial, but power is decided elsewhere—in backrooms, barracks, and the invisible circuitry of state machinery. ODM is not drifting toward William Ruto’s orbit out of ideological conversion. It is retreating into the fortress of proximity to power because it understands a brutal truth: in modern Kenya, elections are not won. They are survived. ODM has lived this truth…

Feb

22

2026

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By Makozewe

Power, Cartels, and State House: The Invisible Hand Preparing Babu Owino’s Political Extinction

Commentaryfeatured, featurednews, history, kenya, kenya stockholm, okoth osewe, politics, raila odinga

If Babu Owino abandons Embakasi East in pursuit of the Nairobi governorship, he will not merely be taking a political risk—he will be walking into a carefully engineered electoral abyss from which there will be no return. Embakasi East is not just a constituency; it is his last fortress of electoral certainty, the only terrain where his political capital, grassroots loyalty, and insurgent brand remain structurally intact. Outside of Embakasi, he becomes exposed to the brutal arithmetic of Nairobi’s power architecture, where outcomes are not determined solely by the ballot but by a suffocating fusion of state influence, financial cartels,…

Feb

12

2026

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By Makozewe

The Point of No Return: The Specific ODM Events and Statements That Sealed Edwin Sifuna’s Political Fate

Analysis, CommentaryEdwin Sifuna, featured, featurednews, kenyastockholm, oburu oginga

Edwin Sifuna’s removal from the position of Secretary General of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) was not the product of vague internal discomfort. It was the outcome of a series of concrete political confrontations, public statements, internal disputes, and elite-level calculations that accumulated over months. By the time the National Executive Committee (NEC) met and formally removed him, the decision was less a debate than a ratification of an already hardened elite position within the party. ODM has historically tolerated internal debate. What it has never tolerated is sustained public challenge to leadership authority during periods of strategic transition. Sifuna…

Jan

27

2026

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By Makozewe

Babu Owino Shouting Into 2027: Mistaking Noise for Power Apocalyptically

Bereavements, CommentaryBabu Owino, featured, kenya stockholm, kenyastockholm, makozewe, ODM, okoth osewe

Babu Owino has confused noise for power and confrontation for strategy. In Kenyan politics, that confusion is not a phase—it is a death sentence. As 2027 approaches, Owino is not consolidating power; he is shedding it. He is not expanding alliances; he is narrowing them. This is not a story about betrayal or sabotage. It is about a politician methodically engineering his own isolation while mistaking attention for authority. The fantasy driving this project is simple and seductive: that Owino can inherit the opposition mantle vacated by Raila Odinga through youth symbolism, permanent outrage, and theatrical defiance of party elders.…

Nov

19

2025

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By Makozewe

ODM’s Leadership Meltdown: A Crisis Rooted in Ideological Bankruptcy

Commentarybroad-based government, coalition politics, ethnic arithmetic, governance legitimacy, Here are **17 keywords**, ideological bankruptcy, Kenyan party system, leadership dispute, opposition fragmentation, political opportunism, political survival, Raila legacy, resource distribution, separated by commas, state power consolidation, strategic dilemma, succession politics

The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) finds itself entangled in an existential crisis that has little to do with ideology, policy, or national vision, and everything to do with political opportunism, ethnic anxieties, and succession battles. The bitter dispute over the party’s disputed leadership elections in Mombasa, the conflicting positions on whether to remain in President William Ruto’s broad-based government, and the absence of any coherent programme beyond Raila Odinga’s 10-point agreement, all expose a deeper reality: ODM is not fractured because of divergent political philosophies, but because it has no ideological anchor. Its leaders are not debating the future of…

Oct

23

2025

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By Makozewe

Babu Owino’s Mission Impossible: The Perilous Road to Luo Kingpinship and Political Survival

Bereavements, CommentaryBabu Owino, ethnic politics, featured, featurednews, Kenyan Parliament, Kenyan politics, Luo kingpin, Luo leadership, Nairobi Governor Race, ODM Party, opposition politics, Political Ambition, Political Power Dynamics, Political Risk, political strategy, Raila Odinga Succession, william ruto, Youth Leadership in Kenya

The Self-Coronation Gamble: Babu’s Dangerous Ambition In the aftermath of Raila Amolo Odinga’s death, Embakasi East MP Babu Owino has thrust himself into the national spotlight by declaring—openly and without hesitation—that he is the new Luo Kingpin and de facto head of opposition. This audacious claim, made with the self-assurance of a man intoxicated by his own charisma, has sent tremors through the delicate web of Luo political organization. Babu’s self-appointment is neither accidental nor spontaneous. For months preceding Raila’s passing, he was already manoeuvring for visibility—issuing bold anti-Ruto statements, staging rallies with visibly choreographed crowds, and launching spirited social…

Oct

21

2025

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By Makozewe

The Crown and the Flywhisk: Why the Quest for Raila’s Successor is a Cultural Nullity

Commentaryancestral authority, burial rites, crown, cultural leadership, elders, featured, featurednews, flywhisk, Jaramogi Odinga, Luo Council, Luo kingpin, Luo traditions, Oburu Odinga, Orengo, political legitimacy, raila odinga, Ruoth, succession

The Burial of a Ruoth: When Leadership Is Sealed Beneath the Earth In Luo cosmology, leadership is not a mere title conferred by the living—it is a spiritual covenant between a man, his ancestors, and the people he leads. When a Ruoth (kingpin, elder, or paramount leader) dies, the burial process itself becomes a ritual of profound consequence. It determines not only his journey into the ancestral realm but also the destiny of his lineage and community. To bury a leader with both his orengo (flywhisk) and his hat or crown is not a decorative act; it is a sealing…