1. Monthly Commentaries
2. Current Issue Political Analysis
3. Historical Issue Political Analysis
4. July Organizing Call

1. June Commentaries

Albert Ojwang Murder

Albert Ojwang, a recent graduate and school teacher, was abducted by police from his home in front of his parents and young wife. He was then transported over 300 kilometers to Nairobi, where he was brutally tortured to death, under police custody. What followed was an outpouring of public outrage both online and offline, for such a heinous crime to have been committed by police against a GenZ, for speaking truth to power. Albert Ojwang had angered the Deputy Inspector of Police Eliud Lagat by exposing his high-level corruption in the police force. Albert case was not an isolated case of police violence, and Ruto’s fascist system of governance, it was a continuation of the abduction, torture and murder of GenZ by the Ruto regime – that followed the occupation of parliament on 24^th June 2025. By the time Albert Ojwang met his violent and gruesome death, Kenyan had had enough, so they poured to the streets on June 9^th 2025.

#ArrestEliudLagat Street Protests

The 9^th June protest was organized to demand for justice for the martyred comrade, Albert Ojwang, and to condemn police violence. The peaceful protest organized by GenZ had a successful turnout, and this angered the police. The Kenya Police became uncontrollably belligerent and riotous, they lobbed teargas indiscriminately, fired live and rubber bullets, and beat up protesters with whips and wooden batons. At the height of this uncalled-for violence by the Kenya Police, one police officer was captured on camera shooting and executing a mask seller, Boniface Kariuki, at point blank range. Unbeknown to the protesters, the Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja, had also paid goons to disrupt the peaceful protesters with violence. The paid goons unleashed untold terror against peaceful protesters who were only armed with their phones and a Kenyan flag, as they went on a looting rampage. The police violence that the GenZ had come out to condemn in a peaceful protest, was met with the same police violence.

June 25^th 2025 GenZ Protests

#SiriNiNumbers hashtag did it for the GenZ June 25^th 2025 peaceful protest. Whether the hashtag was state sponsored or not, it did the job it was supposed to do. If the hashtag was supposed to shift the political agency from the existing political institutions to the sovereign people of Kenya, it did exactly that. The hashtag triggered the ordinary Kenyan to imagine a mammoth crowd marching for justice and freedom. The hashtag answered the question of what to do in the face of a government unleashing goons on protesters. The hashtag allowed the masses to put their trust in the power of their physical numbers, and collective aspiration, to bring about fundamental change in Kenya. The hashtag operationalized and demonstrated the power of the principle of exercising our sovereign rights directly, as opposed to indirectly through elected representatives. It is through the education, agitation and organizing of the masses to march as one, with a common aspiration, that Kongamano La Mapinduzi hopes to facilitate a revolution in Kenya.

#OccupyStatehouse2025

Kongamano La Mapinduzi as a grassroots sociopolitical movement believes that Kenya is not ready for a violent uprising, neither does it believe violence is necessary to achieve the aspirations of the GenZ revolution. However, this does not mean that Kongamano La Mapinduzi has put a cap on producing and practicing new and proven innovations in Kenya’s liberation struggle. Kongamano La Mapinduzi is not afraid to open up new political frontiers, the next new spaces of the struggle for social, economic and political power. Statehouse is a representation of power of the Executive arm of government, the same as the Supreme Court building, and Parliament building. When Kenyans have a problem with the judiciary, they are allowed by the constitution to present their petition to the Supreme Court building. Same if they were not happy with members of parliament, the constitution allows Kenyans to peacefully and unarmed, to present their petition to parliamentarians at parliament building. Kongamano La Mapinduzi holds that, if Kenyans are aggrieved by the executive arm of government, they are allowed by the 2010 constitution to march peacefully and unarmed, to present their social, economic and political demands, to the head of the executive arm of government at Statehouse Nairobi. The president uses statehouse as a symbol of political power. The citizens of Kenya hold more political power collectively, and are more deserving of access to the sit of power that is Statehouse, than any sitting president. It is the GenZ revolution that is going to make it a common culture, to march to Statehouse and present a petition. Statehouse will no longer be the exclusive preserve of the king of the day and his friends.

#FreeMapinduziComrades

After the incredibly successful 25^th June 2025 GenZ protests, the government had to retaliate against the organizers. The government of Kenya had to do something to prove and give life to the narrative that the peaceful protesters were responsible for the violence and destruction of property, as opposed to the reality of the matter, that the Kenya Police marching alongside paid goons, brutalized peaceful protesters, vandalized businesses, and burned down government buildings. Kongamano La Mapinduzi being one of the leading grassroots socio-political movements in Kenya, is currently bearing the brunt of the government fury against organized progressive collectives, who they accuse of organizing the GenZ protests. The Kenya government abducted an official of Ukweli Party, and two Central Committee members of Kongamano La Mapinduzi, detained them at Muthaiga Police station, and denied them legal counsel. The DCI went ahead to publish malicious and slanderous claims that the arrested comrades were the goons responsible for the violence and destruction that took place on during GenZ protests of 25^th June 2025. Efforts are still under way to secure their release and recovery. Kongamano La Mapinduzi is using the hashtag #FreeMapinduziComrades to give the three the pollical agency, not just the political agency of their work (Mapinduzi work), but also the political responsibility that that work demands and is historically encased in the word ‘comrade’.

2. Current Issue Political Analysis

Political Power: Human Rights or Political Based Approach

In the contemporary struggle for justice and dignity, many movements face a strategic crossroads: to pursue reform through the human rights framework or to adopt a more overtly political approach rooted in popular agency. While the human rights approach promises protection and progress within the bounds of law and state institutions, it has shown itself insufficient – particularly in societies marked by institutional decay, elite capture, and entrenched inequality. It is time to assert that the political-based approach – one that prioritizes the power of organized people over the authority of compromised institutions -is not only more radical but also more effective in the fight for liberation.

The global human rights movement emerged alongside the rise of neoliberalism in the late 20th century. It emphasized individual rights, legal redress, and the rule of law – tools that presume functional governance, impartial judiciary systems, and responsive bureaucracies. As political theorist Samuel Moyn argues in The Last Utopia, the post-Cold War human rights surge “was not a revolutionary program but a minimalist one,” providing moral language without a redistributive agenda. In neoliberal democracies, where inequality deepens even as rights are formally acknowledged, this apolitical framing has limited utility.

In Africa and the Global South, the limits of the rights-based approach are even starker. Governments routinely sponsor public participation processes as a façade of inclusion – town halls, consultative forums, and public participation platforms—only to ignore the outcomes. In Kenya, for example, citizens were forced to mobilize in 2024 against a punitive Finance Bill, despite extensive prior public participation processes. The views of the people, captured through legal channels, were brushed aside by political elites. Contrast this with the mass street protests that followed: it was direct political action—not polite institutional engagement—that forced a national reckoning.

The political approach, rooted in mobilization, confrontation, and people-led decision-making, restores agency to those most affected. Rather than appealing to the conscience of a corrupt state, this strategy confronts it. As Frantz Fanon reminds us in The Wretched of the Earth, “the colonized can see right away if decolonization is taking place in truth: the minimum demand is that the last become the first.” That reordering requires power, not petitions.

A political-based approach does not reject rights—it transcends them. It acknowledges that rights without power are hollow. It understands that liberation is not granted but taken. This framework demands more than procedural justice; it seeks structural transformation. Movements like Black Lives Matter, #FeesMustFall in South Africa, and the 2020 End SARS protests in Nigeria show the efficacy of political organization over legalism. These movements bypassed courts and parliamentary petitions, opting instead for public disruption, ideological clarity, and grassroots agency.

Political scientist Chantal Mouffe underscores the necessity of agonistic politics, where conflict is embraced as a site of democratic struggle. In her view, democracy “requires a vibrant clash of democratic political positions.” Street protests, occupations, boycotts, and civil disobedience are not disturbances to democracy – they are its lifeblood.

Ultimately, the path to power is not paved by institutional benevolence but by people’s determination. The human rights approach, with its cautious language and procedural optimism, too often ends up legitimizing the very structures that oppress. The political-based approach insists on rupture, not reform; people power, not parliamentary compromise.

In liberation struggles – whether for economic equity, land justice, or democratic space – the time has come to shift our weight from petitions to protests, from courtrooms to communities. Only then will power begin to move from the few to the many.

3. Historical Issue Political Analysis

Statehouse: The Place of Politics and Political Responsibility

In any democratic republic, the architecture of power is not merely symbolic – it is functional. Kenya’s Statehouse, the official residence and office of the president, represents more than a building; it is the epicenter of executive authority. As such, it is both a political and constitutional space where responsibility must meet the people’s demands. To petition the president at Statehouse is not a breach of order – it is the highest form of political engagement with the executive, rooted in democratic logic and civic duty.

The president of Kenya, as the head of the executive arm of government, bears the ultimate responsibility for the administration of national affairs. The executive oversees the implementation of laws, coordinates national policy, and wields immense influence over both domestic and foreign policy. It is thus logical, even essential, that citizens direct their demands – especially during times of crisis or discontent like the GenZ uprising – toward this branch of government.

As political scientist Dr. Nic Cheeseman argues, “The presidency in many African countries is not just the head of government; it is the focal point of power.” This centralization of authority means that real political action must often target the presidency directly. Statehouse, therefore, becomes not just the president’s office – it becomes a necessary destination for democratic demands.

Furthermore, Statehouse is already a site of high-level political activity. It is where the president welcomes foreign diplomats and receives credentials from ambassadors. It is where visiting heads of state are hosted and where county governors, Members of Parliament, and grassroots delegations are regularly welcomed to discuss policy, development, and political partnerships. The symbolism is clear: Statehouse is the people’s house, in service to the Republic. If it can accommodate foreign dignitaries and elite delegations, it must also open its gates to the peaceful cries of its own citizens.

The tradition of presenting petitions to centers of power is not new. In democratic societies, citizens march to parliaments, courthouses, and executive mansions because these are the institutions that exercise real authority. As Kenyan protesters seek to hold the government accountable for matters such as taxation, corruption, or social injustice, marching to Statehouse is not an act of terrorism – it is a constitutional expression of political participation.

Political theorist Charles Tilly noted, “Contention is not a disturbance of politics; it is politics.” In this regard, protests and petitions delivered to Statehouse are not a threat to national stability but an affirmation of the people’s right to engage directly with power. If Statehouse refuses to accept such civic engagement, it delegitimizes its claim to national leadership.

Moreover, the constitution of Kenya guarantees the right to peacefully assemble, demonstrate, and present petitions to public authorities. Article 37 enshrines this right not only as a civic liberty but as a duty of democratic vigilance. To deny protesters the right to present petitions at Statehouse is to render the executive unaccountable and immune from the public’s moral voice.

In conclusion, Statehouse must not be guarded against the people – it must be opened to them. The logic is sound: if it is fit to host international dignitaries and political elites, then it must also be fit to receive the grievances of its citizens. In moments of national urgency, the most responsible act the executive can undertake is to meet the people – not in silence or repression, but in dialogue, humility, and action. The steps of Statehouse are not sacred – they are public. And it is time they echoed with the voices of the Republic.

4. Political Organizing Call

#SabaSaba GenZ March

The next organizing call revolves around #SabaSaba, the 7^th of July 2025. The demands of the march remain the same, that #RutoMustGo. The extension of #RutoMustGo remain the same, to #FagiaWote. In the end, the entire political class as currently constituted must exit the stage, this means Kindiki Must Go too, Raila must go too, Gachagua must go too, Matiangi Must go too, Kalonzo Must Go too, the whole school of Moi students must go. That is what a political revolution means, no one is spared.

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)