Following last Friday's so-called "Saba Saba Rally," which fell on the anniversary of a famous Kenyan popular uprising on July 7, 1990, Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga announced that tomorrow, Wednesday 12, he is calling on citizens to return to the streets to protest President William Ruto's administration.
"We are peaceful citizens and we respect the rule of law. On Wednesday we will exercise our democratic right in a peaceful and organized manner," Odinga said, urging Kenyans to participate in large numbers in demonstrations across the country.

The issue is not so much the pacifist proclamations of the old (78-year-old) political leader, but the response of the people who are not so much interested in power games as that prices of primary foodstuffs, gasoline and other consumer goods be lowered. That is why many people marched through the streets of Nairobi and the country's major cities with "sufuria," or traditional pots in which to cook polenta and its side dish, on their heads like hats, beating with ladles to make their disapproval heard. The problem with demonstrations and marches in Kenya are the derelicts, the desperate people for whom every opportunity is good to make a mess, loot stores and seek their minimal gain from a day of chaos, as well as the provocateurs by trade, who battle on principle against the security forces.

And in between, there are a lot of no less poor people who even on a day of protests they might consider legitimate, are eager to go to work to earn honestly what little they need to get by hoping for better times. There are the students, who are concerned about their future and would really like to parade peacefully, then find themselves caught in the crossfire of stone throwing and responses with smoke bombs and bullets and get the worst of it. It happened to Eunice, a 22-year-old university student who was killed in the town of Kisii. Five other people, including two Kisumu slum residents, died during last Friday's clashes, with several dozen injured hospitalized.

Hopefully, tomorrow's demonstration really has the makings of a peaceful demonstration to protest against the caravan. In the meantime, fortunately, the judiciary demonstrates for the umpteenth time its independence, as it did during Uhuru Kenyatta's previous government, which was deprived of new laws that would have allowed him to continue with his third term. Yesterday, in fact, the High Court upheld the suspension of the finance bill passed by parliament, which would have increased taxes and is one of the reasons for opposition protests. It is a sign that the roads to solving internal problems may pass more through legal avenues and constructive confrontations, rather than through street expressions that, from peaceful, risk becoming powder kegs.