Wambui Collymore: “Protect Your Assets”

Renowned artist and activist Wambui Kamiru Collymore has issued a stirring call to action for the Kenyan public, urging citizens to recognize themselves as the true owners of the state and to actively safeguard public assets.

In a powerful statement released on Sunday, the widow of former Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore emphasized that every government-held resource—from national parks and public hospitals to military uniforms and riparian land—is bought and paid for by the taxpayer.

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“Anything owned by government is owned by you. You are government,” Kamiru declared, challenging the traditional view of the state as a separate entity from its people.

She argued that the responsibility to protect these collective assets is a duty owed to future generations, expressing deep concern over the current state of public spaces and the potential erosion of national heritage.

According to Kamiru, the mere possession of a Kenyan birth certificate or a history of paying taxes grants an individual a stake in the nation’s shared wealth, asserting that no Kenyan is truly landless when public goods are managed correctly for the public.

This rallying cry comes at a period of heightened tension following President William Ruto’s assent to the Privatization Act on October 15, 2025. The new legislation has sparked a firestorm of criticism from legal scholars and civil rights advocates who claim the law systematically dismantles public oversight.

Among the most vocal critics is former Chief Justice David Maraga, who warned that the Act grants the Treasury nearly unchecked power to earmark an unlimited number of public entities for sale, potentially placing vital national interests in the hands of foreign entities.

The controversy centers on Sections 22 and 23 of the Act, which stipulate that if the National Assembly fails to ratify a privatization program within 60 days, the process moves forward automatically within 30 days.

Maraga described the lack of transparency in this process as “outrageous,” noting that the law does not require the government to provide official valuations of the assets being sold. This omission, he argues, is a deliberate attempt to circumvent parliamentary scrutiny and silence public participation in the disposal of the country’s most valuable resources.

While the National Assembly has defended the Privatization Act as a necessary tool to modernize the economy and improve the efficiency of state enterprises, the combined warnings from figures like Kamiru and Maraga have ignited a national conversation.

The debate now centers on whether the drive for economic competitiveness is coming at the cost of the public’s right to own and oversee the very assets they have financed.