Babu Owino urges Ruto to hire Pastor Manyuru to tackle corruption in govt
By Valerian Khakayi, August 24, 2025Embakasi East Member of Parliament (MP) Paul Ongili alias Babu Owino has suggested that President William Ruto should enlist religious leaders, including Pastor Peter Manyuru of Jesus Teaching Ministry (JTM), to spearhead the fight against corruption.
Speaking during a church service at JTM on Sunday, August 24, 2025, Babu Owino dismissed Ruto’s reliance on multi-agency task forces, claiming they had failed to tame runaway graft in state institutions. Instead, he urged him to consider religious leaders in the anti-corruption campaign.
According to the vocal lawmaker, if Manyuru is tasked with the fight against graft alongside like-minded clergy, corruption would end.
“Instead ya kuform ile multiagency team ya ku fight corruption, nataka uchukue apostles serious men and women of God like apostal Manyuru, huyu mtu hana madowa dowa hata kidogo, huyu mtu akiwekwa kufight corruption pamoja na like-minded men and women of God si corruption itaisha?” Babu said.
“Apostle will pray for corrupt government officials to eat grass like Nebuchadnezzar.”
War on corruption
This comes after Ruto, in his latest move to signal commitment by his administration to ending corruption, established a powerful Multi-Agency Team (MAT) on the war against corruption.
According to the presidential proclamation issued under Executive Order No. 1 of 2025, the Head of State stated that the initiative seeks to enhance cooperation, synergy, and coordination among key state institutions charged with combating corruption, money laundering, and related crimes.
“The MAT is mandated to create synergy and inter-agency cooperation in the fight against corruption, economic crimes, and related offences,” Ruto said.
Ruto’s warning
Worth noting that he had earlier issued a stern warning to corrupt Members of Parliament, vowing to arrest both givers and takers of bribes tied to legislative processes.
The Head of State called out the Members of Parliament on Monday, August 18, 2025, during the ODM and Kenya Kwanza talks held in Karen, Nairobi.
“We are not going to shame them, we are going to arrest them, whoever is giving and whoever is being given, we shall sort them out.
“Do you, for example, know that a few members of your committee collected Ksh10 million so that you can pass the law on anti-money laundering? Did you get the money?” Ruto said.
Additionally, Ruto revealed that a handful of individuals were tarnishing Parliament’s credibility by collecting money using Parliament’s name, which he further stated that at most times, the money never ends up in Parliament; instead, it ends up with a few people.
“Going forward, there are people who are destroying the credibility of Parliament, and they are collecting money in the name of Parliament, and some of the time or most of the time that money never gets to Parliament, it gets to a few people”, Ruto noted.