NEWS GANG: Our best wishes to President William Ruto

Sam: Some may try to draw parallels, but we submit there will really be none. Some may say President Mwai Kibaki was here 19 years ago, but that is not strictly true.

Jamila: Indeed, 19 years is a long time, and there is a whole constitution between the late President Mwai Kibaki and now President William Ruto. The circumstances of those cabinet changes are worlds apart.

Linus: Let’s not even dwell on the history of cabinet changes in Kenya because the bottom line is there has been none like this one before. So let’s go straight to the essential question: how did we get here in the first place?

Yvonne: We got here for a number of reasons that vary depending on your assessment of the circumstances. We submit ours as follows: first, we got here for failing to read the signs of the times.

Sam: The first sign we missed is that of a generational shift on the ground. When youthful protesters by the name Gen Z took to online platforms to air their grievances, they were dismissed with contempt, their views labeled just another regular online chatter.

Jamila: We missed the generational sign when Gen Zs warned that “we are not our parents.” This was a loaded statement about a different way of seeing things. We missed it.

Linus: We also missed the opportunity to do something really basic, and that is to listen. When they first hit the roads in peaceful protests, they were dismissed as chicken-munching children of the rich incapable of sustaining a street protest.

Yvonne: Senior government officials used abusive language to demean the Gen Zs in the general terms of online sissies. Then, boom, came the shocker that startled the country to the realization that this is not a drill.

Sam: The breach of parliament was an unprecedented reminder that we, too, as Kenyans, are not immune to extraordinary happenings. But still, we continued to play deaf.

Jamila: So deaf that theories were immediately bandied about linking the protests to some foreign elements or powers. The anger seen on the Kenyan streets, someone suggested, was generated elsewhere, miles away from Kenya.

Linus: And just like that, some more time was wasted, and protesters pressed on with a mutating hashtag. From "Occupy Parliament" we went to "Occupy State House," "Occupy CBD," "Occupy Counties," "Occupy MOH," and someone suggested "Occupy Everywhere."

Yvonne: And that is how we got here if you restrict that to just the past few weeks. But protesters have reminded us that our journey here has been longer than just a few weeks. They have reminded us that it has actually been about basics.

Sam: Yes, basics such as only people of integrity should hold public positions, especially cabinet secretaries. They reminded us that it is not right to distribute fake fertilizer to innocent farmers or condemned sugar to innocent consumers.

Jamila: Basics such as arrogance and impunity are bad and wrong. Reminding us that elected and appointed officials should not talk down on the electorate or mwananchi wa kawaida. Basics such as respect, heshima, na utu.

Linus: Yes, basic reminders like Chapter 6 of the Constitution actually matter. It talks about leadership and integrity. And the protesters consistently told us there is a gap between those two words, leadership and integrity. And for all those basics, they drew an unprecedented line in the sand.

Yvonne: Now, that is how we got here. As common parlance has it, when you find yourself in a hole, you stop digging. And when you are flat on your back, you can only look up.

Sam: We are down, we have no cabinet tonight, but we look up to a new one. A new one that will be constituted as a matter of compulsion of circumstances in accordance with the aspirations of the majority, especially those who protested.

Jamila: The protesters that are forcing so many changes on us tonight are simply driving us back to the basics. The basics that we took for granted before. Basics like it is not okay to appoint murder suspects to the cabinet.

Linus: So, such basics got us down this extraordinary path, and the protesters are simply saying, the Kenya of the last two years shall not be the Kenya of the future.

Yvonne: Our best wishes tonight to President William Ruto, who sits in the unenviable position but also pole position in the history of Kenya. We commend the good start today, which includes an iconic line from the President: he said, "I heard you."