Kenya’s satire is under threat

Kenyans have long challenged power by laughing. But the Kenyan government has started cracking down on humour.

“At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed,” declared American abolitionist Frederick Douglass in an 1852 speech. He was referring to the futility of arguing the wrongfulness of slavery to a nation whose founding documents declared liberty as a fundamental right. Rather than try to persuade his audience of the obvious, Douglass deployed humour as both a buffer and a weapon against the absurd inconsistencies of enslavement in 19th-century America. But he may as well have been speaking about modern-day Kenya where each new day appears to bring new governmental absurdities. Since last weekend, the police have taken to closing major thoroughfares in the capital, Nairobi, under the pretext of enforcing a COVID-related curfew, causing massive, hours-long tailbacks. Caught up in the ensuing traffic chaos have been ambulances ferrying patients as well as other emergency vehicles, parents with young kids, and employees rushing home. In response, Kenyans have turned to social media to express their outrage, many couching it in satirical diatribes.