Eugénie Tenezakis

Visual storyteller and writer based in Nairobi, Kenya. Views are my own.

[blue @bluewmist]

You need to be slowmaxxing. You need to be reading long, fat books. You need to be making 48-hour chocolate chip cookies. You need to spend hours watching wildlife, you need to spend 15+ min making your coffee. You need to breathe in and breathe out. You need to be slowwwwwwwwww.

[Lynn Ngugi @lynn_ngugi1]

And now they want to convince people the outfit was “symbolic,” that it was some deep revolutionary statement, a Patrice Lumumba inspiration… some bold “FUCK YOU ” to the colonizer.

Well then, clearly the rest of us must be too dumb to understand it.

Because the correlation between “presence is not submission,” Patrice Lumumba, and dancing in front of the same systems that continue to economically extort Africa is what many of us are struggling to understand.

And just so we are clear, during Congo’s independence struggle, Patrice Lumumba did not stutter around colonizers, dance for them, wine and dine with them while calling it strategy.

He stood in front of the world, in front of the Belgian King himself, and openly condemned colonialism for what it was.

Lumumba spoke about the humiliation, exploitation, land theft, forced labour, racism and violence Congolese people had suffered under Belgian rule. He reminded the world that Congo’s independence was not a gift from Belgium, but a fight won through sacrifice, resistance and blood.

That is what defiance looked like🚶🏿‍♀️

[Michael Agwu @MichaelAgwuart]

Not to brag but i made this artwork entirely from electronic waste

[Okiya Omtatah Okoiti @OkiyaOmtatah]

Harry Truman once said: “The only thing new in the world is the history you do not know.”

Fellow Kenyans, our crisis did not begin yesterday.

The looting. The illegal debt. The betrayal of the Constitution. The collapse of public services. The silence of career politicians. These are old scripts repeated by leaders who believe Kenyans forget quickly.

They believe another scandal will trend. Another distraction will come. Another funeral, another handshake, another coalition, another slogan.

Meanwhile, you pay more taxes for debts you never approved and never benefited from.

Between 2014 and 2024, Kenya borrowed Sh9.11 trillion. Only Sh2.57 trillion received proper parliamentary approval. The remaining Sh6.54 trillion is odious debt, unconstitutional borrowing forced onto the backs of struggling citizens.

This is why food prices rise while wages stagnate. This is why hospitals lack medicine while billions disappear. This is why schools decline while politicians grow richer. This is why young people graduate into hopelessness.

And while Kenya bleeds, legacy politicians remain silent. Many are not fighting to fix the system. They are fighting to inherit it.

They criminalize protesters. They weaponize police. They reward political loyalists with advisory jobs funded by taxpayers. They protect corruption networks while ordinary Kenyans suffer.

We go to court because the Constitution is the last line of defense between the people and organized state plunder.

From the struggle for independence in 1963, to Saba Saba, to the 2010 Constitution, every generation of Kenyans has been called to defend freedom against greed and impunity. History is watching us now.

If we remain silent while our country is looted, future generations will remember us as the people who watched Kenya collapse and did nothing.

Read history. Defend the Constitution. Reject fear. Reject silence. Reject thieves disguised as leaders.

We must be a nation that reads, remembers, and refuses to be misled by the same old tricks. Know your history, defend your rights, and let us not be "newly" surprised by what we should have already learned.

Kenya istahili heshima

#OdiousDebt
#ReKe
#Constitutionalism

[NTV Kenya @ntvkenya]

High Court issues orders stopping DCI and other parties from sharing personal data of David Mokaya without his consent

[Eugénie Tenezakis @etenezakis]

On Tuesday morning, Mokaya’s lawyers filed a constitutional petition against Safaricom PLC for sharing his personal data without a court order. This could become a significant moment for digital rights in Kenya. Go watch my explanatory video on the topic: https://t.co/bjD8wjQ2up

[Eugénie Tenezakis @etenezakis]

🚨 Lawyers for student David Mokaya’s have filed a constitutional petition against Safaricom & the state authorities for disclosing his data without a court order. His team calls it a landmark case highlighting repeated warrantless data sharing to the DCI

[Irũngũ Houghton @irunguhoughton]

Mwabili Mwagodi's court arraignment, followed by uni.student David Oaga Mokaya’s full acquittal, shines a stronger spotlight on the misuse of the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act and an international instrument, @Interpol Red Notice system, to stifle political expression
https://t.co/gpWIdLED28 or https://t.co/leQZwgQFPK
#StandardSettingKE

[Yousra Elbagir @YousraElbagir]

I spoke to President Museveni in the middle of a nationwide internet shutdown:

[Ricardo @Ric_RTP]

The real reason the US is invading Venezuela goes back to a deal Henry Kissinger made with Saudi Arabia in 1974.

And I'm going to explain why this is actually about the SURVIVAL of the US dollar itself.

Not drugs. Not terrorism. Not "democracy."

This is about the petrodollar system that has kept America the dominant economic power for 50 years.

And Venezuela just threatened to end it.

Here's what really just happened:

Venezuela has 303 billion barrels of proven oil reserves.

The largest on Earth.

More than Saudi Arabia.

20% of the entire world's oil.

But here's the part that matters:

Venezuela was actively selling that oil in Chinese yuan. Not dollars.

In 2018, Venezuela announced it would "free itself from the dollar."

They started accepting yuan, euros, rubles, anything BUT dollars for oil.

They were petitioning to join BRICS.

They were building direct payment channels with China that bypass SWIFT entirely.

And they were sitting on enough oil to fund de-dollarization for decades.

Why does this matter?

Because the entire American financial system is built on one thing:

The petrodollar.

In 1974, Henry Kissinger made a deal with Saudi Arabia:

All oil sold globally must be priced in US dollars.

In exchange, America provides military protection.

This single agreement created artificial demand for dollars worldwide.

Every country on Earth needs dollars to buy oil.

This lets America print unlimited money while other countries work for it.

It funds the military. The welfare state. The deficit spending.

The petrodollar is more important to US hegemony than aircraft carriers.

And there's a pattern of what happens to leaders who challenge it:

2000: Saddam Hussein announces Iraq will sell oil in euros instead of dollars.

2003: Invaded. Regime change. Iraq's oil immediately switched back to dollars. Saddam lynched.

The WMDs were never found because they never existed.

2009: Gaddafi proposes a gold-backed African currency called the "gold dinar" for oil trade.

Hillary Clinton's own leaked emails confirm this was the PRIMARY reason for intervention.

Email quote: "This gold was intended to establish a pan-African currency based on the Libyan golden Dinar."

2011: NATO bombs Libya. Gaddafi sodomized and murdered. Libya now has open slave markets.

"We came, we saw, he died!" Clinton laughed on camera.

The gold dinar died with him.

And now Maduro.

With FIVE TIMES more oil than Saddam and Gaddafi combined.

Actively selling in yuan.

Building payment systems outside dollar control.

Petitioning to join BRICS.

Partnered with China, Russia, and Iran.

The three countries leading global de-dollarization.

This isn't coincidence.

Challenge the petrodollar. Get regime changed.

Every. Single. Time.

Stephen Miller (US homeland security advisor) literally said it out loud two weeks ago:

"American sweat, ingenuity and toil created the oil industry in Venezuela. Its tyrannical expropriation was the largest recorded theft of American wealth and property."

He's not hiding it.

They're claiming Venezuelan oil BELONGS to America because US companies developed it 100 years ago.

By this logic, every nationalized resource in history was "theft."

But here's the DEEPER problem:

The petrodollar is already dying.

Russia sells oil in rubles and yuan since Ukraine.

Saudi Arabia is openly discussing yuan settlements.

Iran has been trading in non-dollar currencies for years.

China built CIPS, their own alternative to SWIFT with 4,800 banks in 185 countries.

BRICS is actively building payment systems that bypass the dollar entirely.

The mBridge project lets central banks settle trades instantly in local currencies.

Venezuela joining BRICS with 303 billion barrels of oil would accelerate this exponentially.

That's what this invasion is really about.

Not stopping drugs. Venezuela accounts for less than 1% of US cocaine.

Not terrorism. There's zero evidence Maduro runs a "terror organization."

Not democracy. The US supports Saudi Arabia, which has zero elections.

This is about maintaining a 50-year-old agreement that lets America print money while the world works for it.

And the consequences are terrifying:

Russia, China, and Iran are already denouncing this as "armed aggression."

China is Venezuela's biggest oil customer. They're losing billions.

BRICS nations are watching a country get invaded for trading outside the dollar.

Every nation considering de-dollarization just got the message:

Challenge the dollar and we will bomb you.

But here's the problem...

That message might accelerate de-dollarization, not stop it.

Because now every country in the Global South knows what happens if you threaten dollar hegemony.

And they're realizing the only protection is to move FASTER.

The timing is insane too:

January 3rd, 2026. Venezuela invaded. Maduro captured.

January 3rd, 1990. Panama invaded. Noriega captured.

36 years apart. Almost to the day.

Same playbook. Same "drug trafficking" excuse.

Same real reason: control of strategic resources and trade routes.

History doesn't repeat. But it rhymes.

What happens next:

Trump's press conference at Mar-a-Lago sets the narrative.

US oil companies are already lined up. Politico reported they've been approached about "returning to Venezuela."

The opposition will be installed. Oil will flow in dollars again.

Venezuela becomes another Iraq. Another Libya.

But here's what nobody's asking:

What happens when you can no longer bomb your way to dollar dominance?

When China has enough economic leverage to retaliate?

When BRICS controls 40% of global GDP and says "no more dollars"?

When the world realizes the petrodollar is maintained by violence?

America just showed its hand.

The question is whether the rest of the world folds or calls the bluff.

Because this invasion is an admission that the dollar can no longer compete on its own merits.

When you have to bomb countries to keep them using your currency, the currency is already dying.

Venezuela isn't the beginning.

It's the desperate end.

What do you think?

[James Jackson @derJamesJackson]

Europeans are at previously unforeseen levels of monitoring the situation

[Eugénie Tenezakis @etenezakis]

Are there any Kenyans who are currently relearning their mothertongue as adults? Od love to hear from you for a short video I'm working on! #KOT #Kenya #mothertongue

[Eugénie Tenezakis @etenezakis]

Any Kenyan here who is taking classes (either formal or informal with a family member) to relearn their mother tongue? I have a few questions for you! #KOT #Kenya #mothertongue

[Joel @joelbergxnnholz]

If you turn your phone off for 1 day you’ll realise it’s still 2007 outside

[roro, PhD @fuglibetty]

i don’t just say it because I write them either. I think the only way to find meaning in life is to be deeply and earnestly interested in Other People

[Eugénie Tenezakis @etenezakis]

@_mattwelter Anxiety can be linked to childhood trauma and unlreated to your current life... you are stuck in fight or flight mode because thats all your body knows. try EMDR !

[BowTiedMara @BowTiedMara]

The German company that built the forklift used in the Louvre robbery uses a photo of the heist to advertise itself: “When things need to be done quickly.”

😂😂😂

[waikwa @waikwawanyoike]

This, here, is the most eloquent about how we should be thinking about the 2027 transition - and how to reset Kenya back to the path of constitutionalism.
@OkiyaOmtatah, @dkmaraga
https://t.co/XVpkQ0dcrX

[Jeremy Trimble @jeremytrimble]

I didn’t start doing physics until I was 33 and now I work on a cutting edge research project at one of the top labs in the world. You can just do things