It is the same failed promises from Kenya’s populist politics

• Populism grows when the common man becomes fed up with wealth and opportunity gaps and perceived cultural threats.
• This frustration brings strong leaders to power who are often confrontational rather than cooperative. 

Since 2013, the same handful of men have rotated between the presidency, the deputy president’s office and the opposition benches, each presenting himself as the answer to a crisis he helped create, and the campaigns for 2027 promise another round. You can often recognise a populist by his promise to defend the common man against establishment elites, long before he takes office and the economic consequences of his policies become clear.

In 2017, Ray Dalio’s firm, Bridgewater Associates, studied 14 historical populist leaders across 10 countries. It found that populism grows when the common man becomes fed up with wealth and opportunity gaps, perceived cultural threats, establishment elites and a government that does not work effectively for him. This frustration brings strong leaders to power who are often confrontational rather than cooperative. 

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  Nelson Amenya: What can a ‘Twar’ teach us about African unity?

  Keep the banter but turn the shared audit into demands we can pursue together.

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  Nelson Amenya: Kenya’s prosperity tied to independence Parliament

  If MPs insist on serving as errand boys and girls, Kenyans must start treating them as a criminal cartel.