As Kenya heads toward another general election, media personality and podcaster Sheila Kwamboka, popularly known as Kwambox, is urging citizens to rethink how they engage with politics and leadership. Drawing from her own harrowing experience during the 2007-2008 post-election violence, Kwambox believes Kenyans must stop placing blind faith in individual leaders and start demanding strong systems that can withstand political shocks.
Kwambox, who was a journalist at the time of the disputed 2007 polls, revealed that she nearly lost her life multiple times while covering the unrest. “I almost died three times bringing the stories,” she recalled. What stood out to her was the collective refusal to accept loss. “There was no one who was ready to lose,” she said, highlighting how this unwillingness contributed to the deadly chaos that followed.
Over 1,100 people died and hundreds of thousands were displaced in what remains one of the darkest chapters in Kenya’s history. Kwambox believes that the country risks repeating the same mistake if it continues to prioritize personalities over policy, structure, and institutional reforms.
She emphasized that the nation’s political culture still leans heavily on individual leaders instead of building resilient systems. “The fact that we even bank on individuals, for me, sounds like a flaw in the system,” Kwambox said. She stressed that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), the judiciary, and other democratic institutions must be strengthened to deliver trustworthy outcomes regardless of who is declared the winner.
In her view, a mature democracy should not fall apart when a particular candidate loses. The real test lies in whether citizens and institutions can accept outcomes and move forward peacefully. “If we don’t fix the systems, we’re just waiting for the next disaster,” she warned.
Kwambox also pointed to innovative approaches in other countries as examples Kenya can learn from. In one Nigerian state, for instance, artificial intelligence (AI) is being used to detect and eliminate ghost workers—addressing long-standing issues of payroll corruption. She believes Kenya should take a similar approach by embracing technology to fight graft and increase transparency in governance.
According to Kwambox, corruption in many African countries has become systemized and deeply entrenched. Tackling it requires more than promises—it demands a shift toward evidence-based tools and systemic solutions. “We keep looking at individuals to fix these problems when what we need are smart systems and accountability mechanisms,” she said.
The conversation around institutional reform is becoming more prominent as more Kenyan celebrities, influencers, and media figures engage with governance issues. For years, public figures often avoided political discussions, but that is changing. Kwambox is part of a growing number of voices using their platforms to push for national introspection, civic responsibility, and real reform.
As the 2027 general election approaches, Kwambox’s message is both a warning and a call to action: Stop idolizing individuals. Start building systems. Only then can Kenya hope to move beyond the cycle of contested results, unrest, and disillusionment that has marred its electoral history.
