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Wetang’ula cautions youth against demonstrations
11th July, 2025 08:21 PM
National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang’ula has urged the youth against being mobilised to attend demonstrations in the country.
Speaking during an empowerment function in Trans-Nzoia County on Friday, July 11, 2025, Wetang’ula stated that organisers of such demos have their children living abroad while the children of ordinary citizens are invited to protest.
“While the children of those calling for demonstrations are living abroad, they incite your children to break into shops and loot businesses. We have to ask ourselves for whom and for what we are demonstrating,” Wetang’ula said.
Ignore detractors
He appealed to President William Ruto to ignore the complaints about his government, noting that he was the best-performing president in the country.
“You can never finish your journey if you stop to throw stones at every barking dog. The president has done a remarkable job because here in Trans-Nzoia, a third of the maize produced in the country comes from here,” Wetang’ula observed.
“Let us pray for our president, William Ruto, so that when the 2027 general elections are done, we give him five more years of leadership.”
Right to picket
In a subsequent statement, Wetang’ula indicated that the right to picket should not be abused to include rioting.
“During an empowerment meeting in Trans-Nzoia County at the invitation of County MP Lillian Siyoi, I once again reiterated my call to the youth not to be used to spread division and stressed that while the Constitution legalised picketing and demonstrations, the right was not to be abused,” he stated.
“I cautioned residents that those calling for demonstrations must be held legally responsible for the aftermath of the protests because they are holding riots instead of demonstrations and should be dealt with as such since they are causing loss of lives and destroying property,” he added.
During the demonstrations that happened on Monday, July 7, 2025, at least 31 people were killed, more than a hundred injured, and over 500 arrested across the country, according to the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR).
The government, however, reported that only 19 people had been killed during the Saba Saba Day commemoration.
