The Fault of Political Parties in Strangling Democracy and The Problem of Democracy in Kenya

Political Parties under Siege: Kenya’s Democracy on a Test

It is with heavy hearts that we must acknowl­edge a harsh real­i­ty that polit­i­cal par­ties in Kenya are no longer true avenues for chan­nel­ing the peo­ple’s pow­er. Instead, par­ty mem­bers have increas­ing­ly abdi­cat­ed their influ­ence to offi­cials and lead­ers, trans­form­ing these insti­tu­tions into vehi­cles for dom­i­na­tion and elite con­trol rather than bul­warks for demo­c­ra­t­ic entrench­ment.

This trend high­lights deep­er sys­temic issues, exac­er­bat­ed by weak reg­u­la­to­ry frame­works gov­ern­ing par­ties and the lim­it­ed legit­i­ma­cy of over­sight bod­ies like the ORPP. With­out robust laws to enforce account­abil­i­ty and pun­ish mis­con­duct, Kenya has long been vul­ner­a­ble to the cur­rent cri­sis of par­ty dys­func­tion. Yet, a fun­da­men­tal ques­tion aris­es that ‘Aren’t par­ties com­posed of peo­ple… and don’t those same peo­ple ulti­mate­ly decide how par­ties oper­ate?’

We exam­ine the role of polit­i­cal par­ties in con­tem­po­rary Kenya, with a par­tic­u­lar focus on their accom­mo­da­tion of the youth­ful gen­er­a­tion, Gen Z and whether they are meet­ing mem­bers’ needs while ful­fill­ing their demo­c­ra­t­ic man­date. Draw­ing on recent events includ­ing the 2024 Gen Z‑led protests, we iden­ti­fy key fault lines where par­ties have devi­at­ed from their expect­ed roles.

Before delv­ing into these issues, it is cru­cial to con­tex­tu­al­ize them with­in the broad­er polit­i­cal land­scape. The “lead­er­less, party­less and tri­be­less” slo­gan that emerged dur­ing the mas­sive Gen Z protests in June 2024 was not born in iso­la­tion; it was the cul­mi­na­tion of years of polit­i­cal neg­li­gence, arro­gance and betray­al by par­ties. These protests, sparked by the con­tro­ver­sial Finance Bill 2024, which pro­posed steep tax hikes on essen­tials like bread, san­i­tary prod­ucts and dig­i­tal ser­vices, high­light­ed wide­spread dis­il­lu­sion­ment.

Pro­test­ers, pri­mar­i­ly young Kenyans mobi­lized via social media, stormed Par­lia­ment on June 25, 2024, lead­ing to at least 65 deaths from police vio­lence and the even­tu­al with­draw­al of the bill by Pres­i­dent William Ruto. The unrest con­tin­ued spo­rad­i­cal­ly into 2025, with fur­ther demon­stra­tions in June 2025 mark­ing the anniver­sary, result­ing in addi­tion­al fatal­i­ties and under­scor­ing unre­solved griev­ances like unem­ploy­ment, cor­rup­tion and eco­nom­ic inequal­i­ty.

It was the cul­mi­na­tion of years of polit­i­cal neg­li­gence, arro­gance and betray­al by par­ties. These protests, sparked by the con­tro­ver­sial Finance Bill 2024, which pro­posed steep tax hikes on essen­tials like bread, san­i­tary prod­ucts and dig­i­tal ser­vices, high­light­ed wide­spread dis­il­lu­sion­ment.

Mutai V. Chep­ke­moi

Con­sid­er the rul­ing UDA, which pro­pelled Ruto to vic­to­ry in the 2022 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion on promis­es of eco­nom­ic relief, includ­ing tax reduc­tions to ease the cost of liv­ing. Yet, by 2024, the par­ty backed the Finance Bil­l’s tax increas­es, direct­ly con­tra­dict­ing those pledges and fuel­ing pub­lic out­rage. In response to the back­lash, the 2025/26 bud­get avoid­ed new tax­es, but this reac­tive shift did lit­tle to restore trust. Sim­i­lar­ly, the ODM, with a sig­nif­i­cant par­lia­men­tary pres­ence, offi­cial­ly reject­ed the 2024 bill but failed to uni­fy its mem­bers where some vot­ed in favor, prompt­ing inter­nal recalls and expos­ing dis­uni­ty.

Fur­ther­more, young Kenyans, who make up over half of the pop­u­la­tion under 35, have grown up wit­ness­ing the same entrenched lead­ers dom­i­nat­ing par­ty hier­ar­chies, often along trib­al lines where coali­tion prin­ci­pals hail from major eth­nic groups. This has alien­at­ed youth, who suf­fer from its divi­sive effects with­out reap­ing ben­e­fits, rein­forc­ing the view that par­ties are not solu­tions but per­pe­tra­tors of Kenya’s prob­lems.

At the heart of par­ty fail­ures lies polit­i­cal hege­mo­ny, where pow­er con­cen­trates among a select few, often through lega­cy pol­i­tics that pri­or­i­tize class, wealth and age over mer­it. Rep­re­sen­ta­tion remains skewed as par­ty lead­er­ship is dom­i­nat­ed by old­er, afflu­ent elites, sidelin­ing youth despite their demo­graph­ic dom­i­nance. For instance, in the 2022 elec­tions, only 7 of 344 par­lia­men­tar­i­ans were under 30, high­light­ing a gen­er­a­tional gap.

This exclu­sion fos­ters per­son­al­i­ty cults, where loy­al­ty is pledged to charis­mat­ic lead­ers rather than ide­olo­gies. Suc­ces­sion and lead­er­ship bat­tles, often resem­ble inher­i­tances passed with­in fam­i­lies or inner cir­cles, fur­ther entrench­ing dynas­ties. Such dynam­ics sti­fle inno­va­tion and alien­ate younger mem­bers, who see lit­tle room for upward mobil­i­ty.

Equal­ly dam­ag­ing is the grow­ing dis­so­ci­a­tion of mem­bers, breed­ing an ‘unpar­tic­i­pa­to­ry’ cul­ture marked by apa­thy, inse­cu­ri­ty and insta­bil­i­ty. Inter­nal­ly, par­ties suf­fer from low engage­ment on cru­cial issues, dys­func­tion­al local offices and blurred visions lack­ing clear philo­soph­i­cal ground­ing. With over 90 reg­is­tered par­ties as of 2024, many hold few del­e­gate work­shops or con­ven­tions, leav­ing mem­bers dis­con­nect­ed.

Exter­nal­ly, eco­nom­ic pres­sures such as soar­ing liv­ing costs and youth unem­ploy­ment rates hov­er­ing around 35% divert atten­tion from polit­i­cal involve­ment. Par­ty activ­i­ties surge only dur­ing elec­tion peri­ods, cre­at­ing a trans­ac­tion­al atmos­phere rather than sus­tained engage­ment. More­over, the gov­ern­men­t’s work­man­ship, rid­dled with cor­rup­tion scan­dals, erodes trust even with­in par­ties.

These par­ty-spe­cif­ic faults reflect deep­er prob­lems inher­ent in Kenya’s democ­ra­cy. With numer­ous par­ties espous­ing sim­i­lar ide­olo­gies and few dis­tin­guish­ing fac­tors, vot­ers face an illu­sion of choice amid an ever-chang­ing polit­i­cal land­scape and dynam­ic cit­i­zen issues. Democ­ra­cy over-relies on polit­i­cal cor­rect­ness and elite good­will, allow­ing free­doms that can spi­ral into rad­i­cal­iza­tion, extrem­ism and polar­iza­tion, iron­i­cal­ly, becom­ing a means to its own end. Sus­tain­ing demo­c­ra­t­ic val­ues like cit­i­zen engage­ment, vot­ing, edu­ca­tion, inclu­sion and tol­er­ance is resource-inten­sive, com­pli­cat­ed by diverse opin­ions and eco­nom­ic dis­par­i­ties.

Undoubt­ed­ly, Kenya’s polit­i­cal par­ties must reform to reclaim their demo­c­ra­t­ic role by empow­er­ing youth through inclu­sive struc­tures, enforc­ing inter­nal account­abil­i­ty and pri­or­i­tiz­ing peo­ple over pow­er. The Gen Z protests serve as a wake-up call, ignor­ing it risks fur­ther stran­gling of the very democ­ra­cy par­ties were meant to nur­ture. As Kenya nav­i­gates post-Raila tran­si­tions and ongo­ing eco­nom­ic woes, gen­uine change starts with par­ties lis­ten­ing to the peo­ple they claim to rep­re­sent.