“A common language cannot cure a corrupt soul, for justice is spoken in deeds, not words. When the law is broken, it makes no difference if it is in Swahili, Kikuyu, or English—it is still broken. The true national language is justice, and without it, social media debates attacking those who speak their mother tongue to condemn injustice are just noises.”

In a country where injustice speaks fluently in every language, who truly deserves the blame? Travel to Tanzania, where a single language—Swahili—in a way unites the people, and you will quickly discover that a shared language does not guarantee shared justice. Tanzanians are silenced by a system that brooks no dissent. They cannot freely challenge their government without risking arrest, torture, or abduction. And yet they are not tribal to many (on the surface, but still the same exists). Their national language has not shielded them from authoritarianism, nor has it dismantled the machinery of corruption. It has not stopped the powerful from weaponizing fear to keep citizens obedient.

Corruption thrives in offices so brazenly that even polite pleading to an official becomes a humiliating ritual. You can speak in one voice, but it is meaningless when the ears of power are deaf to justice. We will not solve our problems if we keep thinking tribalism is what hinders our progress. Tribalism is not our disease; our fatal sickness is a system deliberately designed to fail. Our institutions are crippled not by the mother tongues we speak, but by leaders and elites who thrive in the shadows of impunity. As long as those at the very top cannot confront injustice and dismantle corruption, the road ahead is nothing but a long, dark stretch into nowhere.

And yet, even as the country drowns in this sea of systemic failure, we still waste precious time picking petty fights over language. Recently, some young Kenyans—particularly among the so-called “activist” wing of Gen Z—turned their fire on former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, telling him that he must be “national” and refrain from speaking his native language during campaigns. Ironically, this criticism comes from a generation that prides itself on being politically conscious, yet in this case misses the deeper point entirely. Speaking Kikuyu, Luo, Kalenjin, Kisii, or any other native tongue is not the problem. A Luo thief will steal from you in Luo, a Kikuyu thief will steal from you in Kikuyu, and an English-speaking thief will rob you with a perfectly polished accent. The language is just the medium; corruption is the message.

Kenya’s cancer is not in the dialects we use—it is in the moral decay at the heart of our leadership and governance. We have been linguistically colonized by our thinking, believing that the unity of speech equals the unity of purpose. It does not. Tanzania’s national language did not stop the rot in its institutions, nor will forcing politicians to campaign in a specific language cure Kenya’s corruption.

If anything, these language-based attacks on Gachagua reveal a dangerous diversion—an obsession with optics over substance. The accurate measure of a leader is not the tongue they speak but whether they can clean up a police force that abducts and kills its citizens, reform courts that sell judgments after working hours, and dismantle cartels that loot with impunity. Without that, Kenya will continue to speak in all languages—English, Swahili, Kikuyu, Luo—and all of them will be saying the same thing: we have failed to fix the system.

To the section of Gen Z engaged in this distraction, your energy is precious, your voice is powerful, but your aim must be sharper. You will not dismantle corruption by policing the language of speeches while ignoring the language of theft, murder, and state capture. If you genuinely want a national conversation worth having, stop debating accents and start dismantling impunity. Until then, we will remain trapped in a political theatre where language is a scapegoat, justice is a stranger, and freedom is a promise that never arrives.

By Arch. Dr. D.K. Gitau | Political Analyst & Founder, The Diaspora Times

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of The Diaspora Times. Any criticism of individuals or groups is directed at specific actions or ideas, not entire communities or generations. diasporatimeskenya@gmail.com