29/06/2024
As a peace ambassador. I can now urge with all humility Gen-z to calm down and give dialogue a chance. In every conflict cycle, there's the apex point of escalation and in such a scenario if one party shows positive signs of ceding ground in order to accommodate interests and concerns of the other party, de-escalation is pursued and seized earnestly by patriotic stakeholders so as to restore peace. In this case, Gen-z has done us proud by proving to those in power/political edifice that citizens are the owners of social contract. Power belongs to the people and therefore nobody should tramp on them arrogantly. If the government and the political class are good learners and analytical, they have witnessed their own lesson. They ought to therefore change their ways of policy making through chest thumping and bravado and instead let public participation to have a meaning.
For non-zero sum eventualities, I suggest the following irreducible minimums for Gen-Z.
1. Assurance that the presidential decision to withdraw the financial bill wasn't a decoy, manoeuvre or usual lies.
2.Serious action, investigations and a commission established with bipartisanship to bring into accountability IG police service and all police officers who shot innocent young Kenyans.
3. Lifetime compensation for all those young men felled by the bullets as they were fighting for our rights and political space hijacked by insensitive regime.
4. Recognition of these killed young men post humously as national heroes.
5. Deliberate and participatory confrontation with corrupt government officers.
6. Reduction of government wastage and salaries of Members of National Assembly, Senate, Governors, Cabinet Secretaries, Principal Secretaries, President and deputy President.
With those few remarks, let's restore peace 🕊️. "Let's us reason together", the word of the lord says so.
Peter Kariuki Maina, is certified Peace ambassador with Institute for Economics and Peace IEP. (B.A peace studies, MA.).
