Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah has reiterated his call for President William Ruto’s resignation, despite the President’s recent decision to dissolve the Cabinet as a measure to address administrative inefficiencies within the Kenya Kwanza government.
Speaking on the Senate floor on Thursday, Omtatah emphasized that the shortcomings of the ruling regime should not be solely attributed to the dismissed ministers, but also to President Ruto himself. Omtatah argued that true accountability requires the President to step down as well.
“The Cabinet has been dissolved, but that is like putting balm on a wound. What we demand, or what I personally think is ready to happen, is that the entire Kenya Kwanza administration, led by President Ruto, must vacate power. I am demanding that President Ruto vacate office; it’s the only honorable thing to do,” Omtatah declared. “Everything around him (Ruto) has collapsed. So you cannot say that his juniors should bear the burden. The ball stops with him and the call that President Ruto must go is a call that must be applied, and as they say, a fish begins rotting from the head.”
Omtatah also referenced the multiple deaths of protesters in June during the height of the anti-government demonstrations. He criticized Ruto’s subsequent statement after demonstrators breached Parliament Grounds on June 25, where the President described the breach as treasonous and vowed to crack down on the organizers and financiers of the protests, labeling them criminals.
“The call that Ruto must go is not an idle call; it is a call whose time has come. Mr. Ruto told us that criminals were on the streets; he has not produced a single criminal and we cannot be told lies every day. Justice is crying out, our children have died and this is something that has never happened in Kenya,” said Omtatah.
“The President has called them criminals and he cannot continue sitting in power when children have died and he said ‘we’ll do anything at whatever cost’ when the constitution says you can’t do anything at whatever cost,” he added.
The Busia Senator aligned himself with those calling for the President’s resignation, stating, “My call is to associate my voice with people who are saying that the President vacate office. There is no room for all we are doing here; let’s start off on a new slate. Anything less than that will not avenge the blood that has been spilled on our streets!”