OPINION: Aisha Jumwa in Linda Mwananchi? Revolutions Are Not Built by Saints

Politics has an uncomfortable habit of offending the purists.

The announcement that former Cabinet Secretary Aisha Jumwa has found political shelter within the Linda Mwananchi movement has unsettled sections of its youthful base. The murmurs are understandable. They are not irrational. Every movement that promises renewal inevitably attracts those who ask whether the old guard should be allowed anywhere near the new house. It is the right question. But it is not the only question.

The more important one is this: how does a people remove an entrenched regime that controls the instruments of state, enjoys access to immense public resources and has demonstrated a willingness to deploy every available lever to retain power?

History offers a sobering answer. Rarely through ideological purity alone.

Every successful democratic revolution has demanded uncomfortable alliances. Every liberation movement has, at some point, shaken hands with people whose pasts were imperfect but whose present interests aligned with the larger mission. Politics, unlike romance, is not an exercise in finding perfect companions. It is the disciplined art of assembling a winning coalition.

The Apostle Paul confronted a similar dilemma. Writing from prison, he acknowledged that some preached Christ out of envy, rivalry and selfish ambition, while others did so out of goodwill. Yet his conclusion was striking: 'What does it matter? The important thing is that... Christ is preached.' He understood that motives could differ while the greater cause still advanced. Politics demands the same maturity. What matters first is whether the cause of national renewal moves forward. That distinction matters.

Those who imagine revolutions as gatherings of spotless angels have not studied revolutions. The American Revolution united merchants, plantation owners, intellectuals and smugglers. The anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa required alliances across ideological, racial and economic divides. Even the democratic transitions across Eastern Europe brought together liberals, conservatives, former insiders and dissidents under one overriding objective: ending an intolerable political order. The first task was victory. Judgement came afterwards. Kenya finds itself at a similar crossroads.

Linda Mwananchi has grown from a slogan into a national political current because it has articulated what millions already feel: that the Republic has drifted away from its owners. It has channelled public anger over the cost of living, corruption, shrinking civic space, economic hardship and the widening distance between government and governed. That momentum is real.

It is precisely because the movement has become a credible threat that it will increasingly attract unlikely converts. Some will come out of conviction. Others out of political survival. Some will arrive late. Others will seek redemption. None of that should surprise anyone.

The question is not whether imperfect people will join. The question is whether the movement remains larger than the ambitions of those joining it.

There is an important difference between welcoming support and surrendering principle. A mature political movement knows how to do the former while resisting the latter. It expands its coalition without auctioning its soul.

That requires discipline. It also requires emotional maturity from supporters.

The youthful energy powering Linda Mwananchi must resist the temptation to personalise politics. Revolutions are not therapy sessions designed to satisfy every emotional grievance. They are strategic contests over power. Power determines who writes budgets, commands the police, appoints judges, negotiates international agreements and defines the direction of the state.

Lose the contest because the coalition was too narrow, and moral satisfaction becomes politically useless.

Win the contest with sufficient safeguards, and genuine reform becomes possible.

This is where difficult conversations become unavoidable. Hard decisions will be made. Compromises will be negotiated. Uncomfortable faces will appear on familiar platforms.

None of these developments should automatically be mistaken for ideological collapse. Sometimes they are simply the arithmetic of democratic change.

The current administration stands accused, in the court of public opinion, of failures whose consequences reach millions of lives. Against that backdrop, removing the regime becomes not merely an electoral ambition but a constitutional necessity for many citizens who believe the country's trajectory has become unsustainable.

That objective cannot be achieved by wishful thinking. It requires numbers. It requires organisation. It requires resources. Above all, it requires a coalition broad enough to defeat a government that will not surrender power voluntarily.

The faithful must therefore prepare themselves. Revolutions demand sacrifice. Not only the sacrifice of comfort, but also the sacrifice of political perfection. They demand patience when instincts cry for immediate purity. They require supporters mature enough to distinguish between the destination and the vehicle carrying them there.

History seldom remembers the coalition meetings. It remembers whether freedom arrived. That is the choice before Linda Mwananchi.

Not whether every comrade is flawless. But whether Kenya finally becomes free.

Maliba Arnold Nyajayi is the Executive Director of Open Future Hub (OFH), a strategy, public policy and governance think tank. He writes on politics, governance, democracy and constitutionalism.