The opposition is now asking President William Ruto to resign, accusing him of  blatant refusal to respect and enforce the Constitution.

Condemning a spate of abductions, the leaders on Wednesday said the President should take responsibility as the “commander in chief of the abduction squad”.

Azimio co-principal Kalonzo Musyoka said the Kenya Kwanza administration has turned out to be a criminal enterprise. 

“For avoidance of doubt, the Director General of National Intelligent Service (NIS) cannot be held responsible alone. The ICC Statute talks about the person bearing the highest responsibility, and that is not Noordin Haji, that is William Ruto. Ruto and his allies’ dictatorship must be considered an ICC statute case,” said Kalonzo. 

Kalonzo, who was accompanied by other Azimio leaders at the SKM Command Centre in Nairobi, said Kenyans would no longer agree to be intimidated.

During the meeting, the Wiper Party Leader announced the expulsion of his deputy, Farah Maalim, who he accused of violating the Constitution and the rights of Kenyans.

“The people’s loyal opposition will not sit back and allow this disgraceful attempt to take us back into the dark days of fear and oppression. We shall lead from the front. We have actually demonstrated leadership from the front because we have been in court,” he said. 

“We will fight them in court, we’ll fight them in the streets, we’ll fight them everywhere. We demand that Ruto respects Kenyans and the oath of office he has sworn to preserve under Kenya’s Constitution 2010. We also demand the immediate release of the remaining abductees.”

Maalim is one of the legislators who have been fiercely defending the president. In a recent gathering, the Daadab MP used unprintable words in reference to government critics.  

Last year, the National Cohesion and Integration Commission summoned the MP over  what they termed as inflammatory remarks against protesting youth.

On Wednesday, Jubilee Secretary General Jeremiah Kioni hit out at Ruto allies angered by Public Service Cabinet Secretary Justin Muturi’s police statement on the abduction of his son. 

“So if your son or daughter is abducted  and you cannot get hold of Ruto, what does that mean to us? We are on our own,” he said. 

The CS, who served as the Attorney General at the time of his son’s abduction on June 22 last year, said he has been waiting for answers to no avail.

Kalonzo noted that Muturi sat on the National Security Council, the top security organ, at the time. “Muturi has been seeking answers for the past six months and they have not been forthcoming to someone so senior in the Kenya Kwanza regime,” he said.

Kalonzo praised the CS for his response after the Director of Criminal Investigations Mohamed Amin invited him to record the statement.

“If the idea was to cower Muturi into silence, they picked on the wrong man. If the bombshell of the Sunday statement was not enough, Muturi’s signed statement clearly and squarely pointed the blame at the main culprit behind the inhuman abductions...That man, as we have previously stated, is President William Ruto.”

The opposition also accused the Kenyan Kwanza regime of establishing command and control structures outside of the Constitution.

“We have actually since established that some headquarters of this abductions squad are somewhere near Ruaraka. As we have previously stated, William Ruto is the Commander-in-Chief of the abductions squads,” said Kalonzo.

“If the Attorney General of Kenya cannot get answers to the whereabouts of his son, who can? If the Attorney General cannot get his phone calls answered by junior staff such as the Director of NIS or DCI, who can? If the then Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki and Principal Secretary, Raymond Omolo are furnished with lies by their juniors, what is the state of the Kenyan Kwanza regime?” 

The leaders also hit out at Ruto for the failure to reconstitute the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission. By Irene Githinji, The Standard

Wiper Party leader Kalonzo Musyoka has called on President William Ruto to enforce the Constitution and the rule of law or else resign.

Addressing the press on Wednesday, January 15, Kalonzo accused Ruto of poor governance and failure to uphold the Constitution.

“We demand that Ruto respect Kenyans, the oath of office he swore he preserve, and the 2010 Constitution. If he [Ruto] refuses to respect and enforce the Constitution and the laws, he should resign,” he stated. 

Regarding the issue of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) selection panel, Musyoka argued that the delays are being orchestrated by Ruto’s 'wingmen' in a bid to rig elections come 2027.

“Those who are barriers of the IEBC selection panel are puppets of Ruto and bear the highest responsibility in the current constitution crisis and an attempt to rig the 2027 elections,” said Musyoka. 

According to him, such actions depict disrespect to the very law, he swore to protect.

His remarks come amidst growing criticism towards President William Ruto over the rising number of abduction cases of individuals who criticize him and his government.

However, according to Musyoka, people should be held accountable as no one is above the law. 

Adding that those held for critiquing the government should be released immediately.

“Nobody is above the law. People must be held to account. Let Ruto and all others perpetrating violence against Kenyans know that they will not go unpunished,” he stated. By Esther Nyambura |The Standard

The Narc-Kenya party leader Martha Karua has applauded Wiper party leader Kalonzo Musyoka for expelling Daadab Member of Parliament (MP) Farah Maalim from his party.

In a statement on Wednesday, January 15, 2025, Karua said that the move by Kalonzo was bold and commendable, adding that discipline is the key to any organization. 

“Bold and commendable move my brother @skmusyoka discipline is key in any organization and that’s the greatest deficit in Kenya’s leadership today, “Karua wrote via her official X account.

Farah’s expulsion

Addressing the press on Wednesday, Kalonzo announced that the MP had been thrown out of the party following his recent remarks, adding that the vocal lawmaker violated the constitution without revealing the specific sections breached.

“For the avoidance of doubt, honourable Farah Maalim who until now has been Wiper Democratic Party Deputy Leader stands expelled from the Wiper Democratic Movement for violating the constitution and the rights of Kenyans and even abusing Kenyan mothers,” Kalonzo Musyoka announced.

This expulsion comes months after the Wiper Party vowed to take action on the outspoken legislator following his reckless utterances against the anti-government protestors.

Farah’s controversial remarks

The Daadab MP, during a recent political roadside rally, hurled expletives and unprintable adjectives towards the youthful Gen Zs who criticize the government online.

“When you see everything progressing and then some fools say ‘Kasongo Ruto must go.’ To hell with those who say that! Is he sitting in your mother’s or father’s seat? He is sitting in our seat, and we will re-elect him; we will deliver 99 per cent or even 100 per cent. We are saying Ruto will stay until 2032,” Maalim stated, adding unprintable insults directed towards youthful Kenyans. 

However, that was not the first time the former Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of Kenya used reckless utterances when addressing the public, during the anti-Finance Bill 2024 protests, Maalim in an interview in his local dialect vowed to clamp down on the youthful protesters.

Following his sentiments, he was summoned by the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) to shed light on his remarks. By Valerian Khakayi, PD

Many writers and talkers have claimed that in choosing to reinstate his name, Tibuhabura, which translates as the one who is never advised, Yoweri Museveni sought to remind the world that he had neither friends nor took advice from anyone.

But this contention is theoretically and practically impossible. The British poet, John Donne was right when he noted that “no man is an island entire of himself/ Every man is a piece of the continent.”

While John Donne meant to argue for our collective humanity as humankind, this is true about individual persons. Indeed, African tradition is replete with sobering reflections on friendship and teammates.

Every person has their trusted friends. Even the meanest of them all has a friend with whom they confide in each other. This friend can call them out privately and confidently. They could be colleagues, or friends in different fields – but agree over their collective existence and mission. 

They could be of equal rank or different ranks. In their friendship, even in diametric difference of opinion, one understands that the other means no harm, nor are they selfishly setting them up. Even Sobbi had trusted friends.

Surely when running a thing as gigantic as a country, one needs their trusted friends to constantly check their guts. Not just trusted employable hands such as Attorney General Kiryowa Kiwanuka, journalist and family friend Andrew Mwenda or his in-laws in Edwin Karugire and Odrek Rwabwogo who he endlessly deploys.

Neither do I mean folks in CMI, CID, senior UPDF officers and others in this category. But close buddies. Nfa nfe. Museveni’s co-president, and brother, Gen Salim Saleh would fit this role. 

But I am not sure Saleh is the only close friend with whom they ‘whisper together’ on even personal matters. Besides, Salim Saleh appears to have a peculiar set of passions – specifically negotiating deals – than actually running the country or intimating about life and death, and long-term interests. Maybe I underestimate the fellow. But again, he cannot be the only one.

DID THE BAHIMA EVER REALLY MEET?

There is a meeting that is claimed to have sat sometime in the early 1990s where folks in Museveni Bahima subclan met and deliberated about how to run Uganda for the next 100 years – or was it more? Having even seen the minutes and the names of the attendees, I had believed that meeting actually took place.

But over the years, I have become sceptical this meeting actually never happened. Because, for a dream like that to be realised, it has to follow a clear-cut plan: (a) ought to be rooted in the regime’s ability to reproduce itself, especially through successive presidents – and not around one mortal individual; (b) strong footing in the economy – and here I mean the economy, not just disposable cash. (We could add a third factor, not to be rooted in ethnic identity but, rather, a set of interests.

This could be explored another day). Indeed, the closest nearest example is Tanzania’s CCM or Iran’s Khomeini institution or China’s Communist Party. Because neither of this is happening ever since this alleged meeting took place, it is possible they neither met or if they did (which appears more likely), neither of them understood the assignment they had set up for themselves. 

The other possibility is that comrade brother Yoweri Museveni reneged on this agenda. But presently, they seem stuck, anxious and disjointed.

Because after these years, the Bahima or even the bigger unit, Bairu, do not have a president in waiting – a man or woman fully established, articulate, and exposed to the world. Instead, all hopes – present and future – seem to be buttressed in a single individual. Are there plans to smuggle a successor onto the country? Or have they staked their futures in PLU’s standby generator? 

Again, they do not even have a toe in the economy. If the Museveni crowd and associates are not scrambling around for government tenders and deals, they are fighting for jobs in the public service. If they are not fighting for ordinary people markets, they are chasing Baganda off their land. 

How is this stable – for a 100-year project?! I cannot stop to wonder how, after 40 years in power, Museveni’s clan isn’t established and monopolizing real money: manufacturing, banking, telecommunication, resale chains, transport and distribution, agro-business, power or resource extraction. How did they agree to hand all these things to foreigners when they had a 100-year project?

Why Museveni’s friends now?

Dear reader, I am looking for Museveni’s friends not to make them feel bad about the raw deal they received from their supposed benefactor. Neither is it my intention to remind them about the uncertainty that is likely to befall them if their man suddenly disappears. But, rather, I am looking for Museveni’s friends to remind them about the fluidity of revolutionary moments. 

I want to notify them that sadly, ironically, their own, selfish interests are closely tied with our collective survival and stability. And yes, despite not being one of them, I am reminding them that they still have a chance to change course.

I am working with the assumption that among these bosom friends of Yoweri Museveni, their benefactor Yoweri Museveni is the oldest – and currently most vulnerable – of all of them.

He is the target of all bodily stresses and political schemes and wrangling. To this end (unfortunately), I am reminding them about the urgent need to secure their interests: plead with this man to give you – and country – a chance when he still can. 

In writing to Museveni last week, I noted that there is power in certainty. Comrade Yoweri Museveni still has the chance to spend his last days as a statesman seated on the side watching the news, growling at the TV screen, or simply sipping his bushera – okuhuuta – and enjoying the sight of his long-horned cattle.

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The author is a political theorist based at Makerere University. The Observer