Resign over abductions, Kalonzo Musyoka tells President Ruto
Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka (centre) addressing journalists at SKM Command Centre in Nairobi on January 15, 2025. He is accompanied by Wiper MPs and Jubilee Party Secretary General Jeremiah Kioni.
Wiper Democratic Movement leader Kalonzo Musyoka has asked President William Ruto to take responsibility and resign over a series of rights violations, including abductions.
Mr Musyoka, while referring to a statement by Public Service Cabinet Secretary Justin Muturi regarding the abduction of his son six months ago, the Wiper leader claimed the government has a unit that is abducting Kenyans and operating outside the established constitutional offices.
“If the Attorney General of the Republic of Kenya (Mr Muturi at the time) cannot get answers as to the whereabouts of his son, who can? If the Attorney General cannot get his phone calls answered by junior staff such as the DG of the NIS or the DCI Director, who can? If the then Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki and Principal Secretary Raymond Omollo are furnished with lies by their juniors, what is the State of the Kenya Kwanza regime?” Mr Musyoka said on Wednesday, January 15.
The opposition leader, who has already announced his bid to challenge President Ruto in 2027, was speaking at a press conference at the SKM Command Centre in Nairobi a day after Mr Muturi linked the abduction of his son to the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and its Director-General Noordin Haji.
In his statement to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), Mr Muturi had said NIS took his son Leslie Muturi in Nairobi on June 22, 2024, and only released him after a phone call from President Ruto.
Mr Musyoka said the fact that the President allegedly ordered the release of the son places him at the centre of the abductions.
The Wiper leader was accompanied by MPs, including Kitui Senator Enoch Wambua, Jubilee Party Secretary General Jeremiah Kioni, Machakos Senator Agnes Kavindu, Embakasi South MP Julius Mawathe and MCAs from Nairobi and Machakos counties.
The calls by the opposition come at a time when the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights says about 82 Kenyans, including Mr Muturi’s son, have been abducted since June 2024, with more than 20 still missing. Five of those abducted in late December were released last week, most of them having been linked to anti-government social media posts.
President Ruto in response to the rising abductions in the country promised to ensure that they will come to an end but also urged parents to ‘take care’ of their children and dissuade them from ‘insulting’ leaders.
Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen on January 11 also warned youth he said were misusing social media and those engaged in cybercrime that they would be arrested and prosecuted.
The CS said the government will firmly deal with crime in the country, and that it will ensure that all citizens are accounted for in the backdrop of claims of kidnappings.
"Even those who have been accused of various crimes, we will ensure that they are produced before the law so that they can be charged," Mr Murkomen said.
"The business of the government of Kenya is not to abduct people but arrest and charge them in court," he said.
Since the pro-reform protests in June, a number of youths opposed to the government have taken to social media to express their dissatisfaction with the government.
