The Politics of Loss: Grief and Resistance
This piece is dedicated to our dear comrade Wanjau Wanja who transitioned on 22/08/2025. He knew loss, the kind of loss brought about by poverty, the kind that haunts ghetto…
A Dream Deferred: On African Liberation and Betrayal
What does African liberation mean to the poverty-stricken miner in Marikana, South Africa, as he drags himself out of a deep shaft, coughing blood and dust, while the platinum he mines enriches the foreign shareholders and local elites? What does it mean to the street vendor in Cairo’s Khan el‑Khalili, stripped of her livelihood because she can’t afford a bribe? What does it mean to farmers in the DRC, watching helplessly as multinationals and the militias they arm/control turn their lands into killing fields? What does it mean to the sugarcane cutters in Mauritius, whose sweat sweetens profits for others while they rot in poverty? What does African liberation mean to the people of Western Sahara, still held hostage under Moroccan occupation? What does it mean to the people of Sudan, caught between the bullets of a brutal, counter-revolutionary war waged by rival generals drawn from the Sudanese National Army(SNA) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). What does it mean to the people of Somalia longing to rebuild their nation? What of the woman I saw crawling through Nairobi’s heat, her barefoot daughter gripping tightly on her dress?
To the Generation That Chose Fear and Silence, We Are Not You!
Kinuthia Ndung’uTo those who lived through the KANU dictatorship and now urge us to be silent - we hear you. We know your fear because we grew up watching it…
Atwoli’s Purple Politics: Empty Symbolism in the Face of Kenyan Workers Struggles
Photo credit: Gammz By Kinuthia Ndung'u In an astonishing display of misplaced priorities, Francis Atwoli, the long serving leader of the Central Organization of Trade Unions(COTU) since 2001, and The…
Sorrow, Struggle and the search for a new Kenyan dawn
Dedicated to the patriots and martyrs who came out to challenge unjust power during the historic Gen-Z uprising in Kenya. Kinuthia Ndung’u “The struggle of man against power is the…
We shall win!
Inspired by the gallant women that contributed to the independence struggle in Kenya against British imperialism and dedicated to all women who continue to resist against the oppressive neo-colonial regimes.Engulfed…
The Climate Crisis as Collective Struggle: Dispatch from a Flooding Nairobi
Kinuthia Ndung’u & Nicholas Mwangi.This essay is dedicated to the memory of Mama Victor (pictured in above image) and Jacinta Adhiambo. Despite both being trapped in a cycle of poverty…
Murder on a Festive Occasion for our People
Kinuthia Ndung’u & Alieu BahLast year, tragedy struck on one of the holiest and merriest of times for the Christian faithful in Kenya after the discovery of four bodies near…
Surviving on the Fringes: Deception of Social Housing
‘Maendeleo ni watu, si vitu(Development should focus on people, not things)’ - Julius Nyerere The tailor who operates a small tailoring shop a few metres from my house, likely in…
Dignity or Death: Notes from Maisha Pub
I am at my local hangout, Maisha Pub, reflecting on many things after slaving all week, selling my labor for almost nothing. On weekends, you'll find me and a few…