“We will not leave, he [Mubarak] has to leave” Egyptians chanted throughout Tahrir Square, Cairo for several days of the month of January through February 2011. They were intent on seeing President Hosni Mubarak resign. At the time, Mubarak had been in power for 29 years, and with forgery and rigging rife at the 2010 parliamentary election, Egyptians dreaded the possibility of a seventh term; 2011 would have marked the 30^th year of Mubarak’s rule, and Egyptians were having none of it. Thus began the 2011 uprising that deposed Mubarak.

The fall of Mubarak: The first revolution 

When he assumed power in 1981, Mubarak promised to rule for no more than two presidential terms even though the constitution allowed for more terms. His first term was renewed in 1987 with a 99.5 percent majority vote in a referendum. His second/third term in the 90’s witnessed a turn in fortune with issues ranging from economic meltdown, Islamic insurgencies, security solutions, and the birth of privatisation. It was during his terms in office that the country’s debt doubled from $34.9bn in 1980 to $962.2bn when he was ousted.

Mubarak’s final decade in power, from September 1999 to February 2011 has been described as his worst. Those years saw the rise of his son Gamal Mubarak, who was rumoured to have taken over the state’s affairs in place of his father. It was also a period of increased savagery by Egyptian security forces on common citizens.

According to Amnesty International, security authorities violated human rights, and carried out systematic torture with impunity during Mubarak’s time. A most notable example being the case of 28 year old Khalid Saeed, who was tortured and killed by Egyptian policemen in Alexandria, Egypt. Saeed’s death is considered a major contributing factor in the uprising that ousted Mubarak.

On the 25^th of January, a widespread protest against Mubarak’s administration broke out, and lasted 18 days. In the course of these days, Mubarak gave speeches in a late attempt to salvage his time in office, but Egyptians didn’t buy it, they wanted him out, and they got him out.

On the 11^th of February 2011, Vice President Omar Suleiman went on air, “In the name of Allah the most gracious the most merciful. My fellow citizens, in the difficult circumstances our country is experiencing, President Muhammad Hosni Mubarak has decided to give up the office of the president of the republic and instructed the supreme council of the armed forces to manage the affairs of the country. May God guide our steps.”

Morsi’s displacement: The second revolution

The announcement caused a nationwide celebration. Protesters fell to their knees in prayer of thanksgiving. People wept and chanted “We have brought down the regime, we have brought down the regime,” waving flags, embracing soldiers, and holding up signs declaring victory. Egypt breathed a huge sigh of relief and from all indications it seemed like a new dawn, but little did Egyptians know that a second revolution lurked. And so two years from when they celebrated the victory of their first revolution, Egyptians were again in the streets celebrating the military’s displacement of Muhamed Morsi. Although not everyone celebrated Morsi’s ousting, it marked Egypt’s second revolution, or as some describe it, a continuation of the first.

Unlike Mubarak’s ousting, which was directly linked to civilian protests, Morsi’s topple was a military coup, but a coup backed by a civil uprising. The military had the people’s approval to depose the man they had democratically elected into power a year from then. Morsi had betrayed them, having failed to fulfil promises made when he assumed power on the 30^th of June 2012. It said that during his time in office, things took a grave turn for Egypt, and that the general standard of living was worse than it had been during the time of Mubarak. Morsi failed politically, economically, and in terms of security. The demands of the January, 2011 revolution – bread, justice and equality – were not fulfilled. Worse, he was pushing Egypt towards a more conservative Islamic state, alienating the secular inclined youths. He also wanted to be involved in the Syrian conflict, a war the Egyptian people did not want to be a part of.

In the face of these issues, the youths took steps to have him impeached by initiating a massive signature campaign where they collected 22 million signatures, and on the 30^th of June staged a massive protest against Morsi’s administration. Their wish was granted just three days later. On the 3^rd of July, then chief of the armed forces, General Abdel-Fatah al-Sisi, announced that Morsi’s government had been displaced, and the constitution suspended.

“We will build an Egyptian society that is strong and stable, that will not exclude any one of its sons,” el-Sisi said.

For the second time in two years, there was celebration on the streets of Egypt; fireworks exploded in the air, horns blared, many waved flags, accompanied by a lot of dancing and drinking in downtown Cairo. But not everyone shared in this jubilation, Islamic supporters of Morsi booed Sisi’s speech, furious that their first democratically elected ruler, who happens to be a firm Islamist, had been ousted. Unlike the jubilation following the 2011 revolution, Egypt was divided over Morsi’s removal; while many saw it as a victory for people power, Islamists saw it as a betrayal of democracy.

An enraged nation under el-Sisi: Will there be a third revolution?

As a defence minister under Morsi, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi played a significant role in getting his former boss out of office. Back then, he stood in front of  a diverse panel of leaders; the Coptic Pope, the grand Imam, Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, and youth leaders of the protest movement, to declare what The Guardian termed his “historic responsibility”to the people of Egypt. When elected president in 2014, he made a pledge to uphold judicial independence, freedom of expression, and the rule of law, but so far, el-Sisi has failed like his predecessors, setting the stage for yet another revolution.

His government has done nothing but give room for increased human rights violations by security forces since he extended the jurisdiction of military courts to try civilians. In the name of fighting terrorism and an Islamic-based armed rebellion, the long existing culture of police brutality and torture has thrived. Human rights violation offenders and murderers are continuously let off the hook, while activists, journalists, innocent citizens, and even children have been put away or handed very harsh punishments by the courts.

Just last month, el-Sisi called for a new law and the amendment of existing legislations to ensure police accountability for police abuse. This seemingly patriotic call resulted from a series of protests that took place in February, but particularly a protest that followed the killing of a taxi driver by a police officer. Mourners and protesters occupied the streets of Cairo and those around a security headquarters building chanting “police are thugs”, demanding justice for the slain young man.

Before then, all President el-Sisi had to offer Egyptians on the increasing cases of police brutality and reckless impunity of the security forces, was a public apology. How do you apologise for the countless deaths, disappearances, and torture that you gave room for? The Egyptian president seemed like he was trying to tame a monster that he himself unleashed and allowed to roam free. However, that same week, in a counter move, the government made an attempt to close the El Nadeem Centre for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence and Torture. The centre is an Egyptian human rights organisation that documents complaints of human rights violation, torture, medical negligence, and death in police custody and prisons.

Amnesty International and the director of the centre saw it as an expansion of the government’s attempt to crackdown on dissent, and rightly so. Aida Seif el-Dawla, one of the centre’s founders called the move a political decision from actors that were keen on the survival of el-Sisi’s regime, despite the oppression and  torture that Egyptians live through daily. The thriving culture of impunity under el-Sisi, and a host of other issues has led media platforms like Huffington Post to describe his regime as a “republic of dread.”

The protests of last month show that Egyptians have had enough, and are ready to express their displeasure against the present administration, as they did with others before it. In 2013, Egyptians celebrated their victory against what many have termed Islamist fascism. They cheered Abdel-Fatah el-Sisi for taking control and saving them from losing their identity as a tolerant and diverse society, as opposed to an Islamist society. But today, in 2016 they are still trying to figure out ways to clamp down on military autocracy.