SABA SABA: Why July 7 Still Matters
Saba Saba literally means “Seven Seven”, the 7th day of the 7th month. But in Kenya, it is far more than a date. It is a symbol of the relationship between citizens and the state.
On 7 July 1990, Kenya was a one-party state under President Daniel arap Moi. Political dissent was heavily restricted, and calls for multiparty democracy were growing. Opposition leaders, including Kenneth Matiba and Charles Rubia, called for a public rally at Kamukunji Grounds to demand democratic reforms. The government banned the gathering, arrested key leaders, and security forces violently dispersed demonstrators. Despite the crackdown, the protests changed the course of Kenyan history.
The pressure generated by the Saba Saba movement contributed to the repeal of Section 2A of the Constitution in 1991, ending Kenya’s status as a de jure one-party state and paving the way for multiparty elections in 1992. (The Star)
Since then, Saba Saba has evolved. Every generation has interpreted it through its own struggles, political freedom, constitutional reform, corruption, accountability, economic hardship, police conduct, and the cost of living. The issues have changed, but the central question has remained remarkably consistent:
How should power relate to the people?
Saba Saba is therefore not a celebration of protest for its own sake, nor is it a celebration of government. It is a reminder that democracy is a continuous conversation between authority and liberty. Governments require order to function; citizens require freedom to hold power accountable. A healthy republic protects both.
History also teaches another lesson: no government lasts forever, but the institutions and democratic principles strengthened during each generation should outlive every administration.
Saba Saba is not merely about remembering 7 July 1990. It is about asking whether each generation has left Kenya more free, more just, and more accountable than it found it.
The World Bank has given Kenya more than 10 conditions before it can access the next round of loans.
Here are 10 of the main conditions explained in simple terms.
Thread below:
I warned Kenyans about this days ago. Today, after watching Citizen TV news, we are seeing it happen.
President Ruto issued a roadside directive asking all students to go to school with or without fees etc.
Two students reported to their assigned Grade 10 schools as directed by the government, without uniforms and without fees.
Their parents were asked simple questions:
What will your children eat?
What will they wear?
Where have you ever seen students admitted with no fees?
They were sent back home. One child is crying on camera.
My fellow Kenyans, leadership is not about roadside directives. Leadership is planning.
You cannot announce enrolment without preparing schools, parents, or students.
What worries me most is this: the government is just interested in these students reporting and getting them in their MOE database/ systems so that they will report "96% enrolment" to lenders like the World Bank, but they don’t care what happens next. In reality, many of these children will drop out by the second term, quietly, when the cameras are gone.
We are walking into the highest dropout crisis in years. The education gains made under Kibaki are being erased.
Enough is enough.
This is a policy failure. This is leadership failure.
@KeNHAKenya WAIYAKI WAY IS A DEATH TRAP.
1. NO STREET LIGHTS
2. NO PEDESTRIAN CROSSINGS
3. NO LANE MARKING
4. NO MARKINGS FOR BUMPS
@Ma3Route
I see a pedestrian knocked down daily
HOW TO PREVENT MORE MURDERS
1. Stop using @SafaricomPLC lines.
2. Draft and save this Emergency Alert on your @X, @Meta, @WhatsApp and @signalapp: “My name is XYZ. I have been abducted by DCI/Police/NIS. Raise alarm!”
3. When anyone whom you suspect to be DCI, NIS or Police approaches you, press “send to all” and notify your family members, friends, bloggers, media, @LawSocietyofKe, etc.
4. Make maximum noise. Resist. Don’t let them take you without maximum commotion.
5. Anyone and everyone who witnesses an abduction or receives the emergency alert should spread the message, make noise, chase the abductors. Don’t let them abduct anyone.
Consider any group of DCI, NIS and Police criminals who approach you in civilian clothes, masked, in unmarked motorcycles or vehicles to be killers.
#JusticeForAlbertOjwang
#Justice4AlbertOjwang
#ArrestEliudLagat
#ArrestMohamedAmin
#ArrestNoordinHaji
#OccupyStatehouse2025
#RutoMustGoNow
Dear Kenyan middle class, your overpriced rental, 2nd hand Japanese/German car or cushy 15th floor corporate job at Upperhill can't shield you from dysfunction.
You're more close to Us, the Natives, than you are to being an extractive billionaire. Stop being delusional, Wake Up!