The XYZ Show

TotalEnergies is plastering its logo across African football while continuing to drill, displace communities, and expand fossil fuel infrastructure across the continent. From ill-compensated resettlements along the EACOP route to communities in Mozambique pushed off their land in LNG developments, these are the stories behind the shiny ads. Football is one of Africa’s greatest joys, our pride and unity. It shouldn’t be used to greenwash destructive practices or distract from the real lives affected by pollution, climate breakdown, and broken promises. @MagambaNetwork #KickTotalOutOfAFCON

#KickPollutersOut #KickTotalOutOfAFCON

Good job young men

“Phwks… I’m here with goodies.” That’s how it seems when polluters arrive with sponsorship deals, advertisements, and “investment projects”, handing out cash and logos while leaving behind poisoned water, broken promises, and lost livelihoods. In Mozambique, communities displaced for LNG were promised homes, farmland, fishing access, and jobs, but many lost their land and livelihoods and never saw fair compensation. In Uganda and Tanzania, people along the EACOP route were given little for their land, and resources were taken, while the pipeline’s impacts continue. In Angola and Nigeria, oil spills and toxic contamination have destroyed water sources and farms for decades. These aren’t gifts. They’re distractions wrapped in PR, while environmental damage and community suffering go unaddressed. Football can’t clean up oil spills. Our beautiful game is not a PR laundromat. #KickTotalOutOfAFCON #StopEACOP #StopMozGas @MagambaNetwork

One barrel goes in, then another, then another. Across Africa, extractive projects arrive with promises of development, in fishing communities in Senegal and Mauritania, along oil routes in Chad and Cameroon, in coastal towns in Angola and Mozambique. Different places, same script: land taken, waters polluted, livelihoods disrupted. Then comes the clean image. Football sponsorships, shiny logos, and feel-good campaigns are used to soften the damage and distract from what communities are left to deal with. This is sportswashing, using the love of the game to polish a reputation built on extraction. Football shouldn’t be used to carry the weight of pollution, displacement, and broken promises. #kicktotaloutofafcon @MagambaNetwork

@TotalEnergies is plastering its logo on AFCON while communities are facing the fallout of its fossil-fuel expansion, from losing farmland and fishing access in Mozambique to inadequate compensation in pipeline zones. We say no to sports washing. #kicktotaloutofafcon @MagambaNetwork

More than 13,000 people have been displaced by EACOP, with many more losing land, homes, and livelihoods and receiving inadequate compensation. This is the real cost behind Total’s AFCON banners. #KickTotalOutOfAFCON #stopeacop @MagambaNetwork

You cannot bulldoze communities and expect football to clean your guilty conscience. We see the harm behind the sponsorship — and we’re not staying quiet. #KickTotalOutOfAFCON @MagambaNetwork @Polluters_Out Art by Mercelline Akinyi, LinkedIn👉 linkedin.com/in/marcellines…

In this moment, a resident from Lodwar, Turkana County, reads Article 1 of the Constitution of Kenya, a reminder that all sovereign power belongs to the people, and that this power can only be exercised directly by the people or through their democratically elected representatives. Yet over the years, this promise has been stretched, twisted, and violated, not just by Willy, but by many of Wanjiku’s exes before him. From police brutality, unlawful killings, and excessive use of force, to mass arrests during peaceful protests, and even court rulings striking down laws that contradict the Constitution, the people’s power has repeatedly been ignored, suppressed, or negotiated away. This is what makes the moment in the skit hit harder. Because while the Constitution says power belongs to the people, lived reality often tells a different story. At least… that’s what we were told at the sales pitch. So the question remains: Is it Wanjiku’s decision-making that needs fixing, or is it a system so broken that it needs to be dismantled entirely? @ForumCivESA #bunippt #jumuikasikika #wajibuwetu #democracy #xyzmtaani

You can’t cover up pollution with football. @TotalEnergies is using AFCON to clean its image while communities live with the damage. We’re not buying it. #KickTotalOutOfAFCON @MagambaNetwork @Polluters_Out Art by Mercelline Akinyi, LinkedIn👉linkedin.com/in/marcellines…

Football can’t be used to wash away environmental destruction and human rights abuses. Our game is not a PR strategy. #KickTotalOutOfAFCON @MagambaNetwork

Shoutout to @TotalEnergies for loving Africa so much that they keep extracting our resources, heating our planet, and sponsoring football to distract us. What would we do without you? 🥹 Thanks for the climate chaos, flooded homes, heatwaves, and empty promises wrapped in green logos. Thanks for calling fossil fuels “development” while communities get pollution and profits fly straight out of the continent. Very generous. Truly. And the AFCON sponsorship? Chef’s kiss 🤌🏾 Nothing says “we care about Africa” like drilling our future while cheering “GOAL!” in HD. We’re tired. We’re not confused. And we’re definitely not grateful. Africa is not your PR playground. Pack your pipelines, take your greenwashing scripts, and leave our continent. Football is ours. Africa is ours. The future is ours and it’s fossil-free. #AFCON2025 #KickTotalOutOfAFCON

“Willy, affordable housing yenye bado nalipia mimi peke yangu?” 🤨 Kenya’s Affordable Housing Programme was meant to unlock dignity and provide decent homes, at least that’s what we were told at the sales pitch. Reality, however, seems to have taken a different address: few units "have been delivered", sky-high costs, and communities pushing back against evictions and opaque planning. XYZ Mtaani staged this skit at the Annual Democracy & Human Rights Festival, to remind us all: "Tujipange vile tuta evict wale wamepatiwa talaka." @MarthaKarua @ForumCivESA #bunippt #jumuikasikika #democracy #wajibuwetu #xyzmtaani

Our beautiful game is not a PR laundromat! @totalenergies is splashing its logo on AFCON while communities face the fallout of fossil-fuel expansion. #KickTotalOutOfAFCON Art by @JrPencilking

Dirty money from pollution and exploitation doesn’t become clean just because it’s on a stadium banner, or handed to a dying planet. Africa deserves better. @totalenergies must go. #KickTotalOutOfAfcon Art by:@JrPencilking

After watching the XYZ Mtaani latest episode on Climate Disinformation, where a young man uses fear, half-truths, and confusion to mislead an elder under the guise of “climate change”, one participant spoke of an important lesson: the need to educate our young ones. In the skit, fear is created with fake claims, false credibility is built by dropping a respected name, and traditional knowledge is twisted into confusion, all to deceive the vulnerable and take advantage of their trust. This resonated with residents because it mirrors what happens when communities lack access to clear information and critical thinking. Yet at the same time, it raises a broader question about government priorities. While locals call for better education and awareness, the reality on the ground tells a different story. In 2025, education stakeholders raised alarm when some schools reportedly received as little as KSh 87 per student in capitation funds, a figure described as shocking and insufficient to meaningfully support learning. What does it mean when our children are expected to confront complex issues, like climate narratives, civic rights, or political persuasion, with an education system that is underfunded and struggling to deliver basic support? Because when communities don’t have access to quality education and reliable information, the gap is filled by those who exploit fear, misunderstanding, and poverty. And the consequences, from land deception to political influence, show how knowledge and education are central to protecting both our rights and our future. @ForumCivESA #bunippt #jumuikasikika #democracy #xyzmtaani #wajibuwetu

When the emissions are high, the only thing left to decarbonize… is the public image. Fossil fuel companies are out here rebranding, repackaging, and rehearsing their “green energy” lines like their lives depend on it. Billions poured into PR. Pennies into actual transition. In 2025, the race isn’t to clean the planet, it’s to look clean. @MagambaNetwork @Polluters_Out #KickTotalOutofAfrica #KickTotalOutofAFCON #ClimateEmergency #ClimateCrisis #ClimateJustice #EnergyTransitions #TotalDevastation #StopEACOP #Sportswashing #FootballVsFossilFuels #GreenwashingGoals #AfricanLivesMatter

The government of Kenya under William Ruto isn’t just dividing the country it's engineering a national fracture on purpose. Tribal tension has become the Kalenjin shield. Whenever the heat rises over corruption, looting, or the auctioning of public assets, the regime’s CSs, PSs and sponsored keyboard militias launch a coordinated tribal circus to suffocate the truth. It’s not chaos; it’s a strategy. The moment Ndindi Nyoro exposed the alleged Safaricom fire-sale and pointed to president William Ruto, the entire communication machine went into overdrive not to deny the allegations, not to explain the privatization spree, but to drag the country into senseless tribal hostility against the kikuyu nation. Instead of addressing the sale of KPA, Pipeline, and airports, they manufactured tribal noise to bury the scandal. This is the president’s survival manual: When caught stealing, create an ethnic war. When exposed, ignite a distraction fire. When cornered, attack the tribe not the truth. And the propaganda is vicious. They don’t touch the facts because they can’t. They assassinate the identity of the messenger because it’s easier. @NdindiNyoro speaks on national plunder, and immediately state agents scream, “He’s a Kikuyu.” That’s the entire rebuttal. Not substance, not evidence just tribal poison meant to blind the country. They want Kenyans stupid, emotional, and easily steered. They want a population too busy insulting each other to notice that a handful of powerful men are selling the country piece by piece. They want citizens to fear the truth if it comes from the “wrong” tribe. It’s psychological warfare dressed as politics. This is how nations die not from lack of resources, but from leaders who weaponize identity to cover their crimes. And let be honest: The enemy is not any community. Not the luo, kikuyu or kamba. The enemy is not the tribe of the whistle-blower. The enemy is leadership that hides theft behind tribal smoke. If we allow the state to dictate our emotions, they will loot uninterrupted. If we keep chasing tribal bait, they will privatize this country into extinction. If we don’t break this script, Kenya will break instead. Criticise the information, expose the rot, confront the power but don’t fall for their tribal trap. That trap wasn’t designed to protect you. It was designed to protect the thieves.

According to Turkana North MP Sharif Ekuwam Nabuin, some voters “went with KES 5,000” during the Lakezone Ward by-election, where he publicly claimed that voters were being bribed. Residents also alleged that other forms of bribery, including relief food items such as maize, were used to influence the results. You may hear this and think, as many often say, that the enemy is poverty. But what then do we make of what happened in June 2024, when Members of Parliament later confessed to receiving millions as financial inducements to pass the Finance Bill of 2024? The same political class meant to protect public interest chose the millions over the millions they represent. Does this mean that money speaks one message to the poor and a completely different one to the rich? For the hungry, a few notes or a bag of maize can be enough to decide an election. For the powerful, the same money buys influence, protection, and silence. So we are left to confront an uncomfortable truth: If money can buy decisions at the top and votes at the bottom, then the inequality between those two messages is exactly what continues to weaken our democracy. @ForumCivESA #bunippt #jumuikasikika #democracy #xyzmtaani #wajibuwetu