I sometimes think about how growing up under authoritarian governments influences how parents raise their children. In Kenya, the two immediate previous generations grew up under such governments. Our parents grew up under the dictatorship of the ’70s and ’80s. Their parents grew up under a violently dying brutal colonial empire.

The love of corporal punishment.

The dislike of any opposition to an idea.

The father’s ‘special chair’.

The lack of any political education at home.

Maybe these things were just parents subconsciously replicating what they saw the government do in their childhood.