Thread by @wmnjoya

If Raila proposes to entertain us Kenyans, suffering under SAPs, with a referendum to amend the constitution, reduce the counties and make Nairobi a capital and not a county, I hope we all vote NO.

Although these days, votes don't count. He knows that better than anyone else.

White supremacy aka uthamakistan has been fighting against our constitution the same way that Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher (whom Muigai admires) fought against the gains of the civil rights movement.

Until the power to the people in the constitution is dismantled, the ruling class with their US and UK supporters are going to keep telling us neoliberal nonsense that our freedom interferes with development. Julie Gichuru tells us that politics and development are separate.

And if that referendum comes when we're right in the middle of "tightening our belts, " it will be for two reasons:

1. We will have low political immunity. We will be too battered by austerity to say No. Classic #shockdoctrine

2. The referendum will be a distraction from asking Muigai to leave office. It will give us an illusion that were showing him the middle finger when we really are signing our own death warrants. That's how Brexit and Trump's election worked.

But I hope that Kenyans will not accept a referendum in the first place, for these reasons:

1. Why waste money billions on a poll when they will be laying off civil servants and we will be struggling to make ends meet?

2. The real reform we need is not the constitution but the institutions. Our institutions are still fundamentally racist and are not yet aligned with the constitution. Muigai is using his control of colonial institutions to undermine our constitution. theelephant.info/features/2018/…

Raila doesn't know better. Elections are the limit of his understanding of how hegemony works. That's why after the handshake, I said that we thank him, but his work is done. The young people have to take over from here. The older generation has run out of ideas.

You young people of Kenya have to be the ones to tell us what's next. As Nikki Giovanni's poem says, you have to invent your own games and teach us older ones how to play. Our parents gave us the constitution. Now you young people need to give us institutions.

Remember Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party revolution. When Theresa May thought that Brexit was a sign that her power was solid, the young people of Britain joined Labour, swept Corbyn into leadership and denied May the majority she thought she had.

So we too need to deny Muigai the majority endorsement he's seeking through the handshake and plans for a referendum.

Muigai can steal our money and our vote. But we should never give him our soul. Let it haunt him forever that we never said yes.

Remember that Msando was killed for IEBC. Pendo, George, Willie Kimani were killed by the police. Our youth are criminalized by schools. Our taxes are looted. Our courts hijacked. CEOs are paid millions while we're told we're unemployed because we're not entrepreneurial.

The purpose of this daily violence from different institutions is to distract us from uniting and saying #Muigaimustgo. It is not just a rigged vote that keeps Muigai in power. It is also the neoliberal hijack that makes all institutions question our humanity every day.

These are institutional problems that must be solved by all of us. No one man can address them, least of all through a referendum. Let's all do what @OkiyaOmtatah @katibainstitute @ErrantNatives and others are doing: demanding reform that aligns INSTITUTIONS to the constitution.

We can never, ever, completely fix the political power and elections with the institutions remaining as they are. We must fix them first, then we fix the constitution. The constitution is most progressive collective effort in Kenya. Others are too backward to give it lessons.