It took a combination of luck, noise, and a miracle for me to win the first campus elections rather than a popular vote. I’m Paul, and I was chosen to lead the Student Council at one of Kenya’s most disorderly institutions. However, what transpired following that triumph almost shattered me. I had come to the office with lofty goals for unity, student welfare, and changes.
I was unaware that I had passed on a conflict. The student body was highly unsustainable, divided, and intensely defiant. The people who backed my opponent loathed me, not simply opposed me. When I was speaking to first-years during my first week, someone threw a loaf of bread at me. My posters were destroyed at the entrance another time. They referred to me as a “project of the administration” and a “puppet leader”. And it didn’t stop there; competing student organisations staged a full-scale demonstration calling for my resignation. To read more click here.
