I rarely follow what she says, but here she has a point. Karen Nyamu is right that pride is costing people in this government.
Kenya Kwanza’s biggest problem has always been the attitude that they know better than everyone else, that criticism is noise and that public anger can be dismissed until it becomes a crisis.
That pride was there during the Finance Bill protests, when Kenyans were shouting themselves hoarse and government leaders were still talking down to them until people were killed and Parliament was breached.
The bill was eventually withdrawn, but the political damage had already been done, and some of that anger has never gone away.
The real price of that arrogance may not be paid in Cabinet meetings or press conferences. It may be paid in 2027, when the same people who were ignored, insulted and lectured finally get to answer with a ballot.
And there is another funny problem. In past regimes, people close to the President would spend weekends around Nairobi, pass through clubs, restaurants and social spaces, hear what ordinary people were saying about government, then carry that mood back upstairs on Monday.
Now most of the Kalenjins close to Ruto disappear to ushago over the weekend, and the few who remain in Nairobi mostly end up in Kalenjin drinking joints listening to people who already agree with them.
