Abductions, broken promises: ‘Billionaire’ Kimani Ichung’wah sweats in Al Jazeera interview as he defends Ruto rule
National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah
National Assembly Majority leader Kimani Ichung’wah on Thursday, February 27 was made to sweat by Al Jazeera as he defended President William Ruto’s administration on accusations of killings, abductions and corruption while hinting that Public Service Cabinet Secretary Justin Muturi was "on his way out".
Mr Ichung’wah accused Mr Muturi of playing politics with the issue of abductions, peddling falsehoods and courting his exit from government.
Mr Muturi has in recent months told off the Ruto administration over abductions, claiming that in 2024 his son was held by suspected government security agents at the height of the Gen Z protests and only released when the head of state called the National Intelligence Service Director General Noordin Haji.
"As for Muturi's lamentations that his son was a victim of abduction and was only released when he (Muturi) sought the president's help, I have only read about it in the media and heard him talk about it... but the president's side of the story is yet to be heard," Mr Ichung'wah said on Al Jazeera's hard-hitting Head to Head programme, hosted by Mehdi Hasan.
He went on: "Mr Muturi is a politician to start with and has beef with his boss President Ruto. There are reasons why he was removed as Attorney General during the period of the Gen Z protests (in 2024) and most probably there are reasons that he is on his way out".
The Kikuyu MP and Majority Leader in the National Assembly said the minister was "playing politics" with the issue and "he (Mr Muturi) definitely knows that he is on his way out of cabinet".
Mr Ichung'wah, who is known for refusing interviews with local media, especially after his ascension to the Majority Leader's seat, travelled to London for the Al Jazeera Head to Head interview only to face questions that he struggled to keep up with.
Among those in the audience was Amnesty International-Kenya's Executive Director Irungu Houghton, who insisted that the country was a hub for abductions and killings of dissenting voices, saying the figures recorded exceeded those reported in the post-independence struggles.
Mr Houghton said the onus was on the president to take executive action to end the abductions and hold all those involved to account.
In the interview, Mr Ichung'wah admitted that the Ruto government was unpopular but denied the Al Jazeera anchor's claim that it was "super unpopular".
It started when the host posited that President Ruto had 281 promises in the Kenya Kwanza 2022 manifesto but had only partially fulfilled about 14 of them, citing Mzalendo Trust, a non-partisan organisation that monitors parliamentary business.
"It is true that perceptions are that President Ruto is unpopular...it is nothing uncharacteristic for an administration that came to power two years ago with a lot of promises but that will change with time. We found a dilapidated economy," Mr Ichung’wah said.
He added that "the implementation of our manifesto is page by page, chapter by chapter, sentence by sentence...it is happening. It is only two years...I cannot give a definite answer about specific promises met".
The president had also promised to put in place a commission of inquiry about cronyism and state capture within 30 days of taking office, an issue that left Mr Ichung'wah clutching at straws in his defence.
But he complained that he had not been given a chance to answer questions, saying, "There is no way you can judge the implementation in two years of what should be implemented in five years".
He said the government had implemented the affordable housing programme and had moved to subsidise production rather than consumption by providing cheap fertiliser, thereby reducing the cost of living.
Prof Awino Okech of the University of London, a panellist, said: "Kenyans everywhere have expressed their distrust of their government...certainly this regime has a trust deficit."
She urged Mr Ichung'wah to remind the President that something urgently needs to be done to restore the confidence of the Kenyan people.
Mr Ichung'wah said most of the unfulfilled promises were captured in the report of the National Dialogue Committee (Nadco), which was set up to reconcile divisions after the acrimonious 2022 elections.
He was reminded that the abductions began during the June 2024 Gen Z protests against the 2024 Finance Bill, long after the Nadco report had been submitted to the president by opposition leader Raila Odinga.
Today, the Nadco report is largely being revisited in an attempt to create the position of Prime Minister for Mr Raila Odinga, who has just failed to capture the chairmanship of the African Union Commission.
Mr Ichung'wah was also asked why, in the face of rampant abductions, extrajudicial killings, torture and persecution, the government has yet to ratify the Convention on Enforced Disappearances.
He said the government did not condone extrajudicial killings or abductions.
"All demonstrations, unfortunately, end with deaths, but it is not true that people demonstrate and we open fire... it is just the nature of demonstrations that they turn violent at some point and the police have to intervene. We regret the loss of life, no life should be lost, no one can justify the loss of life anywhere in the world," he said.
He said the country has a robust constitution that holds everyone accountable for their actions.
"The Independent Police Oversight Authority (IPOA) has recorded about 60 deaths from these demonstrations. Even if some police officers want to cover up, the institutions will catch up with them," he said.
This was after he was reminded that some victims of extrajudicial killings with gunshot wounds to the head were registered by the police in morgues as victims of road accidents.
As the grilling got hotter, Mr Ichung'wah complained that the host was relying on and believing what human rights organisations were saying about the country, while his version was being ignored.
"I came here to give my version, not theirs," he said.
Mr Ichung'wah was reminded that he was on record saying that abduction victims were pretenders, adding that some had locked themselves in Airbnb with their lovers and were having a good time.
He defended himself, saying he had indeed said that "but in the context of dispelling the misconception that every abduction is an act of the security agencies".
Asked why he would prioritise a case of someone holed up in an Airbnb when bodies with gunshot wounds were found in morgues, forests, quarries and warehouses, Mr Ichung'wah said some abductions were acts of political conspiracy.
He said there was no evidence that the National Intelligence Agency and the Directorate of Criminal Investigation were abducting and killing citizens, and that "none other than the president himself has pledged to stop cases of disappearances".
On allegations of corruption, including against the President, the Majority Leader said: "Kenyans are very active and participatory. They will tell you that Ichung'wah or Ruto are corrupt, but they will not provide a single piece of evidence to back up their claims.
Mr Ichung'wah said he was not worth Sh5 billion as claimed, "but I'm somewhere close to one (billion shillings)".
Panellist Moses Lang'at, who is the leader of the Kenyan community in the UK, said President Ruto's government was a victim of propaganda and was being judged without facts.
He said the country had reduced the cost of living and boosted agricultural production and asked that the President be given time to implement his plans.
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