United Democratic Alliance (UDA) secretary general Hassan Omar speaks to the media in Nairobi on May 19, 2026.
Despite offering a public apology a few days ago, there is no let up for the push to kick out Mr Hassan Omar as Secretary-General of the ruling United Democratic Alliance (UDA) over his perceived ethnic-laced hate remarks.
It has been a downward spiral for the senior party official, who now faces charges of inciting ethnic animosity, something he once opposed earlier in his public career.
The latest development follows sustained pressure from leaders for the former Mombasa senator to resign or be forced out, following a public backlash over controversial remarks he made in Mombasa at the weekend.
The Nation has learnt that an official petition to sack him could reach President William Ruto, the UDA party leader, as early as this week, largely from Dr Ruto’s allies in the Mount Kenya region.
They want the President to take action against the human rights defender-turned offender, saying his remarks will affect them on two fronts: their own political ambitions and campaigning for the President in the region.
They have told the President that his own party spokesperson is shooting himself in the foot and handing opponents ammunition instead of helping them attract support for the party.
DCP leader Rigathi Gachagua addresses journalists at the party's headquarters in Nairobi on May 25, 2026.
“We reject Hassan Omar’s apology in toto. Omar is a mouthpiece of William Ruto. How can you sit at the same table as people who are attacking your supporters, and then come and apologise to them?” former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua said.
These remarks have already provided fuel for opposition politicians in Central Kenya.
Enraged leaders from the Mt Kenya region allied to the President have reached out to party chairperson Cecily Mbarire and National Assembly Leader of Majority Kimani Ichung’wah to communicate their position to the commander-in-chief.
With Mr Omar’s apology falling on deaf ears, the fate of the former vice chairperson of the Kenya National Human Rights Commission (KNCHR) now lies with President Ruto, who is facing a moment of reckoning.
The noose also appears to be tightening on him, with the National Cohesion and Integration Commission moving to open an investigation into his comments, which they deem hate speech.
UDA party secretary general Omar Hassan addresses journalists at the party offices in Nairobi on September 19, 2024.
“No one is above the law. Wait and see what we will do,” Bishop Kepha Omae, the Commission chairperson, said.
“We have seen others resort to politics of division, and they are so shameless even doing in front of national leaders, and nobody is coming out to condemn the utterances,” former President Uhuru Kenyatta, who has emerged as one of the fiercest critics of the Kenya Kwanza Administration, said on Monday.
The clergy has also condemned the remarks, insisting the church will not condone divisive rhetoric, warning that such reckless utterances could divide the country.
Mr Omar, who is also an East African Legislative Assembly (Eala) MP, has been in the eye of a storm for days now following his utterances during a title issuance event presided over by President William Ruto in Mombasa County.
A section of political leaders in the country is now demanding his resignation over the inflammatory remarks that have been perceived by many to be equal to ethnic profiling.
The remarks were interpreted as targeting a specific community after he blamed “Kenya’s founding father and his son” for allegedly overseeing land injustices in the Coastal region, calling for the prosecution of those he described as land grabbers who belong in jail.
His attempt at an apology, pleading that his statements had been misinterpreted and taken entirely out of context and were never intended to demean, offend, or target any community, has been rejected by the leaders, especially those drawn from the Mt Kenya region.
“The remarks in question were made within the context of my long-standing advocacy on historical land injustices affecting the coastal region, and were never intended to promote division, hostility or animosity among communities,” the SG said in his apology.
Not new to controversy
Mathira MP Eric Wamumbi told Nation that they will not accept anything less than Mr Omar resigning as UDA Secretary-General, saying his unfortunate sentiments should not be coming from a secretary-general of a ruling party who is supposed to be uniting Kenyans.
The lawmaker, joining the growing list of leaders calling for Mr Omar’s resignation, said the honourable thing the former Mombasa senator should do is to step down from his position, failure to which they will write to the President to sack him.
“We are going to write to the party leader and UDA leadership to have him removed from the position. We have other leaders who have said things that did not augur well with Kenyans and they resigned from their position and so the honourable thing Hassan Omar needs to do is to resign from being UDA’s SG. That is the bare minimum requirement for him,” said Mr Wamumbi.
“The statement puts us in a precarious position with the people who support the President from our region but it is not him who said the words and therefore he should not be crucified. Hassan Omar should carry his own cross over what he said. We are going to crucify him and not the President.”
Mathira Member of Parliament Eric Wamumbi.
Former UDA SG and nominated Senator Veronica Maina said it is untenable for Mr Omar to continue holding the office, terming the utterances as “way below standards expected from an office of that nature.”
“This is not the first time Hassan Omar is making such remarks and because he spoke from his heart, he should do the honourable thing and resign. The office of a ruling party’s secretary-general should be a symbol of hope, harmony and reconciliation,” said Ms Maina.
Nyeri Woman Representative Rahab Mukami added: “We will forcefully remove him (Hassan Omar) from office if he continues with such divisive remarks.”
Attempts to get comments from Mr Omar over the growing push to have him step down were futile as he neither picked up our calls nor responded to our text messages sent to his known number.
But the former Wiper SG is not new to controversy. The Lenana School alumnus is a man known for his penchant for ruffling feathers and going against the grain.
In the late 1990s, the 50-year-old hit national headlines as a firebrand student leader who dared take on former President Daniel arap Moi, accusing him of being “a dictator and an academic dwarf”.
His bone of contention then was that Moi University should have disassociated itself from “shameless dictator Moi” by changing its name.
His brave or reckless antics earned him an expulsion from the institution in 1998 for allegedly inciting students against honouring the university’s name. President Moi was the chancellor of the university.
However, the Narc government would offer him an academic lifeline when the regime nullified all politically-instigated university expulsions, seeing him return to the university in 2003 to complete his Law degree.
Mr Omar would quickly carve a niche as a fearless human rights defender culminating in his appointment as a commissioner with the government-run Kenya National Human Rights Commission (KNCHR) in 2007.
He swiftly rose through the ranks to become the Commission’s vice chairperson before resigning in a huff in the lead-up to the 2013 General Election to join elective politics.
But it seems the former human rights defender – after joining politics – is fast turning into a human rights offender with his loose tongue landing him in trouble.
United Democratic Alliance (UDA) secretary general Hassan Omar speaks to the media at the party headquarters in Nairobi on May 14, 2026.
Appearing to have learnt bad manners associated with Kenyan politics, the embattled UDA Secretary-General is now a man under siege.
“We want to reject in total the attempts by Hassan Omar to apologise to the people of the Mountain for inciting Kenyans against them,” said former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.
Kirinyaga Woman Representative Njeri Maina is adamant that the former senator was fully cognisant of the tribal diatribes he was spewing, as he is not an amateur in politics.
“He was only saying what he believes and what his masters discuss in the boardroom talk; outside the purview of the public, and what they pass in their subliminal message to Mt Kenya. Issuing an apology will not change his tribal perspective, or those of his masters. As a matter of fact, he can keep his apology!”
Matungulu MP Stephen Mule added: “We must petition the ICC on official capacity to make sure Hassan is held accountable for his utterances.”
Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru said that while they support President Ruto’s re-election, no one should be allowed to profile certain people on tribal lines.
She said the tutam movement, to which they remain fully committed, is a national movement that does not legitimise the spewing of ethnic hatred, however couched.
“As a nation, we have been there before and we said never again! That approach may excite crowds, but it is short-sighted, undemocratic, and can ultimately only be severely injurious to the nation. He owes our nation an apology,” said the governor through a statement on her X account.
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