Kenyan police only respect a particular skin colour, or a person’s status based on their proximity to power or wealth. They would rush to arrest a black man (a retired Chief Justice), rather than touch a white person or an Indian. Yesterday’s protest had white, Indian, and black people - all citizens of this country. Yet, when the police decided to arrest the protestors, they went for the kind of people the Kenyan police is trained to beat, shoot, and sometimes arrest. Black people. The Indian and white people were allowed to return peacefully back to their homes.
One of my mentees, who is Indian, had been working for weeks to mobilise for yesterday’s protest. He went to the people who frequently visit Nairobi National Park daily - the ones who own lodges, hotels and tour vans, the ones who have published photography books with beautiful images of the park and sell prints of the photos they take - but they refused to stand against the destruction of Nairobi National Park.
Even without building the controversial parking lot, Nairobi National Park is already dying. Uhuru ignored all reason and built a railway through the park. The unchecked urban encroachment and the loss of crucial wildlife migration corridors, driven by human settlements and industries in areas such as Kitengela, Athi River, and Rongai, have been slowly killing the park.
And not only are they building a parking lot, but they also want to build a new state-of-the-art orphanage in the park, which they cite as justification for the parking lot. They want to take away healthy, pristine, and wild land to put up buildings and enclosures to hold wild animals for people to come and gape at. Orphanages are meant to rehabilitate and rewild animals. Not to commercialise wildlife viewing in a country with numerous parks. Roughly 11% to 16% of Kenya's total land area - roughly 9 million hectares – comprises parks and wildlife conservancies. In addition, the current Nairobi orphanage is so badly run and neglected. People who can’t manage a bird cage want to build a big zoo.
No sane architect would design a KSh 30 billion convention centre without considering parking spaces, but that’s what Bomas International Convention Complex has done, so that Ruto can use that excuse to grab a bit of Nairobi National Park. But I digress. I am writing this with complete sincerity as someone who has friends and supporters from all races and communities in Kenya and around the world.
Yesterday’s arrest of only black people at the march also speaks to the huge racial divide that exists in the minds of the officers on the ground and those above them about arresting brown and white people.
The trade union in Kenya was started by an Indian, Makhan Singh, who was imprisoned by the British colonial government. Makhan Singh served 11 years in political detention, the longest in Kenya's pre-independence history. There is the Vidyarthi family, who used their printing press to advocate for black and Indian rights during the colonial days, and supported pro-democracy movements during the Moi dictatorship days. There is Eruch Nowrojee, a lawyer who represented the Mau Mau fighters, and his son Senior Counsel Pheroze Nowrojee, who fought for democracy, justice and represented political dissidents. His daughter Binaifer Nowrojee is in the trenches promoting democracy and human rights globally.
Tired of corruption and bad governance, a white Kenyan, Dr Richard Leakey, founded the Safina Party in 1995 alongside Senior Counsel Paul Muite. The name, which means "Ark" in Swahili, was intended to symbolize a rescue mission for Kenya’s political and economic systems. It was a medical doctor and Human Rights activist Ling Kituyi, a Norwegian-Kenyan, who founded the Independent Medico-Legal Unit (IMLU), an organisation that was founded to treat Kenyans who were brutalised, shot or tortured during the Moi days. They were dedicated then, and to date, to preventing and responding to torture, extrajudicial killings, and related human rights violations. It’s IMLU who provided the experts and forensic doctors to document my torture injuries from Tanzania.
However, the majority of the grandchildren of the Kenyan Indians and white Kenyan settlers who have the wealth and power to support change, cover their eyes and ears and remain quiet when injustice happens. Where has that spirit gone? Have comfort, privilege and resources diluted the courageous blood that ran through the veins of their forefathers? If we're in this mess, aren't we all supposed to be in it together?
Some of them own and run sweatshops in industrial area, where most of their employees are casual labourers, a workforce that forms the majority of slum dwellers. They’re the ones running flower farms that pay employees peanuts, while earning billions and living lavishly, while their employees are getting miscarriages and other complications.
They control the luxury hotel industry, owning lodges and conservancies that charge thousands of dollars, while the local communities lack clean water or school libraries. They’re not willing to work with local communities to fight the bad governance which causes abject poverty but, instead, give politicians and their cronies company shares for “political protection.”
In 2022, a leading presidential candidate collected Ksh 2 billion in a single day from the Indian business community. People were lining up at his office carrying duffel bags full of cash. They would meet with the candidate for 2-5 minutes, say which company they represented and how much was in the bag, and the candidate would note the amount and company so he would know whom he owed favours in the future, and the size of that favour.
Like in all communities, I understand that there are people who contribute tirelessly from behind the scenes to the progress of our country. I am sure there are many who prefer to work in the safety of silence but, unfortunately, we live in a country where silence is deemed as weakness and that weakness is then exploited.
The reason I bring this out is that the silence of the wealthy minority - the black Kenyans who have made it, the Indian and white community - will not save them. You can get private security, private schools, and afford the best lawyers, but when a government goes rogue, no amount of money will save you. When billionaires can be abducted, and board members get charged on flimsy grounds for refusing a hostile takeover, you’re not safe. It’s only a matter of time before someone in power decides they want to take what you have by force, and they will even have you murdered, if it comes to that.
Four of the top five richest people in Kenya are Kenyan Indians, according to a 2022 Oxfam report. It’s time they, together with white Kenyans, joined the frontline in fighting for our rights. Going by the shameful police behaviour yesterday, they will not get arrested if they lead a protest or two. June 25th 2026, is a day of remembrance for the Gen Z heroes that we lost, and we would like to see the two races that are minorities in Kenya - but have more wealth, power, and influence - take part in the protest.
At the end of the day, yesterday's protest was not about colour or status, even though the actions of the police stated so. The protest was about protecting the Nairobi National Park. A National Park belongs to the people! All people, of all colours. Just like our country does. So, let's act like it and stand side by side when it comes to fighting those who would break us, rather than build us.