23 Jun Joint Statement: Ukweli Party and Kongamano La Mapinduzi
THOSE WHO KILL US CANNOT GOVERN US: RUTO MUST GO
23 June 2025, Nairobi – On this first anniversary month of the June 25th massacre of peacefully protesting youth by the state, Ukweli Party (UP) and Kongamano la Mapinduzi (KLM) jointly issue this statement to declare, without fear of contradiction, that the Ruto-Kindiki-UDA-Kenya Kwanza administration is a mortal danger to all of us, the people of Kenya.
We recall that in the wake of the GenZ-led #RejectFinanceBill2024 countrywide peaceful protests, president William Ruto choose tyranny, abductions and enforced disappearances, torture, murder, everyday intimidation and brutality as his administration’s official response to Kenyans’ legitimate demands for accountable governance and an end to state corruption and looting of public wealth.
It is in the public knowledge that president Ruto’s criminal response to Kenyans exercising the constitutional rights to freedom of expression, including through peaceful protest led to the extrajudicial killing of more than 60 protestors; enforced disappearance of at least 82 persons; the arbitrary arrest of 1,208 people and at least 132 cases of people who are still missing since the June 2024 protests. The bodies of some of those reported missing have been found dumped in rivers, abandoned quarries, mortuaries, and roadsides showing signs of torture – others mutilated and dismembered. Ukweli Party and Kongamano la Mapinduzi believe that these numbers could be higher given the impunity with which authorities have responded to their own unlawful activities.
This week we call on the sovereign people of Kenya to remember that these are not just numbers. Our compatriots were murdered. Some are still missing and unaccounted for. Families continue to mourn without hope for justice; and our nation bleeds as the Ruto-Kindiki presidency continues to normalize state crimes and impunity. President Ruto deployed snipers who shot unarmed and peaceful protestors. Security forces in uniform and others in plainclothes – some of who concealed their identities by wearing facemasks, balaclavas and tactical scarfs whilst moving in unmarked cars – shot live ammunition directly at protestors, emergency medical teams and even journalists.
It is in the public knowledge that the hunt for the young Kenyans who showed up for Kenya last year never stopped. Just last week, during peaceful protests to demand justice for Albert Ojwang, we witnessed on the streets of Nairobi the deployment of gangs armed by the state to suppress our constitutionally protected rights to peaceful protest and assembly. We saw officers of the Kenya Police Service working alongside, and protecting the goons as they violently attacked, robbed and harmed both protestors and passersby. We all know that the public officers involved in these acts of criminality cannot have acted without a Ruto-Kindiki approval.
That is why no one has been summoned or questioned by the now-severely discredited and partisan investigative agencies. Since last year, Ukweli Party and Kongamano La Mapinduzi have consistently joined forces with other patriotic Kenyans to demand full and expeditious accountability for the crimes committed by the Ruto administration in the context of the unlawful crackdown that has gone on since June last year. We knew then and know now that a presidency gone rogue cannot investigate itself – let alone hold itself accountable for its crimes.
Ukweli Party and Kongamano La Mapinduzi wish to state clearly that our country’s descent into governance by crime – and the abdication of governance under the Constitution and the rule of law – is not accidental. From the patterns we have observed since June 2024 until last week’s state response to peaceful protestors, we have legitimate concern that president William Ruto is priming the country for political violence and mayhem as a decoy for creating conditions where the next general elections are impossible. We believe that president Ruto is actively instigating a climate of civil strife to set the stage for the delay of the 2027 elections and therefore extend his first term to whatever lengths the cabal in power would wish. Ruto is actively setting our country onto a trajectory we might not survive or recover from if we allow him to continue.
During the deployment of anti-riot police and protected goons on the streets of Nairobi last week, many protesters witnessed the use of guns not known to be designated for members of the Kenya Police Service – including hunting shotguns and old muskets that we have never before seen in use by our security forces. From our witness on the streets and review of images appearing in news reports, these guns were in the hands of individuals whose dressing differed from the anti-riot police in their company. These individuals appeared trigger-happy, exuberant and violent even in the absence of provocation compared to those who we believe were legitimate police officers deployed on the streets. The guns that these individuals hold can not be traced back to the police force after ballistic analysis or investigations that occur after shootings, creating room for plausible deniability. Kenyans will recall that during the June 25
massacre last year, there appeared strange deployments on the streets of armed men not fitting the profile of our security forces.
We fear that there might be a third armed force – a militia recruited, armed and forcefully embedded alongside the Kenya Police and other security services to do the political bidding of president William Ruto and the cabal that is helping him repurpose the Government of Kenya and state system into a criminal enterprise.
Ukweli Party and Kongamano la Mapinduzi wish to remind Ruto and all his accomplices that when we, the sovereign people of Kenya created our Presidency as elaborately defined in our 2010 Constitution, we did not create a job for serial killers whose activities we fund from our taxes. We hoped for the presidency to be the clearest and brightest reflection of the nation we set out to become: one that is at peace with itself, one that is governed by the rule of law under our Constitution, and one where justice is the shield and defender of all sovereign citizens. The Presidency that we created for ourselves – not for politicians – is about service to the nation: not murder of the nation.
The Ruto-Kindiki presidency has failed on all counts of what we, the people, created that office for – and our collective expectations of those who should exercise its delegated authority. A failed presidency should be terminated and that is our call to the people of Kenya. We must bring to an end the criminality and national destruction that this presidency has orchestrated and continues to implement as we watch.
Our organizations and movements, Ukweli Party and Kongamano la Mapinduzi, today declare unequivocally that no accountability and justice for victims of state crimes is possible under a Ruto-Kindiki presidency. We remind the nation that while Ruto perfected his criminality over the last year – including through fake apologies and lies about accountability, more and more Kenyans continue to be killed by the state. Albert Ojwang, who was brutally killed early this month, is just one of the most recent cases. We must remember that before Albert Ojwang, there were the killings of Rex Maasai, Denzel Omondi, Austin Makokha, Eric Shieni, Evans Kiratu, Ryan Mwendwa, Beasley Kogi, among many others who were martyred by the state.
What then happens when those at the helm of the State and Government of Kenya are suspects and no longer defenders of our Constitution and the rule of law that they publicly swore by oath to uphold? Ukweli Party and Kongamano la Mapinduzi call on all Kenyans to stand in one accord to stop our country’s descent into the mayhem and lawlessness that the Ruto-Kindiki presidency is actively orchestrating. It is now clear that Ruto and Kindiki’s political playbook is colored with armed political thugs who will continue misusing our intelligence, law enforcement and military agencies for their political survival. This presidency and the entire UDA-Kenya Kwanza administration have lost all legitimacy and credibility to continue governing the people.
To stop further destruction of our homeland, to restore our sovereignty and power to govern ourselves justly in accordance with our progressive Constitution and the rule of law; and to revert our institutions of governance into competent, independent and accountable public services for the people of Kenya, Ukweli Party and Kongamano la Mapinduzi demand the following:
- Full disclosure by the Inspector General of Police of what exactly happened on June 25
2024 and after in relation to who gave the orders leading to the extrajudicial killing of peaceful protestors; the abduction, disappearances, torture, and murder of protestors and online critics of government policies; and if there are armed political militia groups entertained within official police deployments. In addition to ongoing murder cases and ongoing inquests, we demand that judicial inquests must be started for all those killed in the June 2024 protests. - A parliamentary inquest to look into the conduct of the Ruto-Kindiki presidency so as to establish if their response to the June 2024 protests and subsequent crackdown on government critics and protestors violated the Constitution of Kenya and hold them to full account in accordance with the Constitutional mandate of the National Assembly and Senate as prescribed under Articles 95, 96 and 145 of the Constitution of Kenya. Ukweli Party and Kongamano la Mapinduzi fully know the integrity and credibility deficits of the National Assembly and Senate but we make this demand because they are well paid employees of Kenyans and the Constitution grants them responsibility to hold the Executive to account on behalf of the people of Kenya. They have no choice but to change their ways and represent the people as required;
- Above all, the resignation of the Ruto-Kindiki presidency in the public interest for serial unconstitutional, unlawful and criminal conduct as we have highlighted in this statement.
Finally, we ask Kenyans to join the families of those we lost to criminal state violence during and after the #RejectFinanceBill2024 last year – in Nairobi and across the country as they present their demands for justice to public officials. We will be marching alongside you, for Ukweli Party and Kongamano la Mapinduzi are part of our forward march into a new Kenyan history of freedom, dignity, social justice and peace for ALL.
We welcome all Kenyans who share this determination, hopes and dreams for Kenya to join our just and righteous struggle that seeks to create a new Kenya that accords peace, justice and dignity to all. Defeating the anti-people Ruto-Kindiki administration is a first crucial mission for all of us: they cannot maim and kill us, and lead us.
*end of statement*
Note to Editors: For further engagement, contact Sungu Oyoo, National Spokesperson of
Kongamano La Mapinduzi – KLM (0724917875) & Nduko O’Matigere, the National
Chairperson/Party Leader of Ukweli Party (0720131574)