Nairobi, February 28- National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung\u2019wah has come under fire from Kenyans on X following his recent interview in London, where he dismissed allegations of enforced disappearances of protesters as \u201ca conspiracy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking at Conway Hall with journalist Mehdi Hasan, Ichung\u2019wah denied claims that the government was involved in the abduction of demonstrators, particularly during the June 2024 Finance Bill protests. \u201cI do not believe there are enforced disappearances perpetuated by the state in Kenya,\u201d he insisted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, human rights organizations paint a different picture. The Kenya Human Rights Commission reports that since President Ruto took office in 2022, at least 63 civilians have died due to police violence, 65 people have been forcibly disappeared, and over 1,400 protesters have been unlawfully detained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ichung\u2019wah was challenged on specific cases, including claims by former Attorney General Justin Muturi that his son was abducted by state security agencies after participating in the 2024 protests. Muturi alleges his son was only released after President Ruto personally intervened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ichung\u2019wah dismissed the claim, saying, \u201cI tell you emphatically, he has reasons to lie. He\u2019s playing politics with a very unfortunate incident.\u201d He went further to suggest that Muturi, now serving as Cabinet Secretary for Public Service and Human Capital Development, might soon lose his job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cJustin Muturi knows he’s probably on his way out. He definitely knows it,\u201d Ichung\u2019wah remarked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The interview also touched on Ichung\u2019wah\u2019s personal wealth. When asked about claims by Minority Leader Junet Mohamed that he is worth KSh 5 billion (approximately $38 million), Ichung\u2019wah corrected the figure, saying, \u201cNot 5 billion. Probably about close to 1 billion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His casual admission fueled further backlash online, with Kenyans criticizing the extravagant wealth of politicians while ordinary citizens struggle with high living costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the growing public outrage over MPs flaunting their lavish lifestyles, Ichung\u2019wah admitted, \u201cIt’s rather unfortunate. Nobody should do that.\u201d He added, \u201cMembers of Parliament in my party who I see flaunting things that are not palatable with Kenyans, I tell them, \u2018Hey bro, this is not good.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While Ichung\u2019wah attempted to downplay allegations of state repression, Kenyans on X expressed embarrassment over his responses, with many accusing him of ignoring the reality on the ground. His remarks have only intensified the debate on police brutality, political accountability, and the widening gap between Kenya\u2019s leadership and its people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nairobi, February 28- National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung\u2019wah has come under fire from Kenyans on X following his recent interview in London, where he dismissed allegations of enforced disappearances of protesters as \u201ca conspiracy.\u201d Speaking at Conway Hall with journalist Mehdi Hasan, Ichung\u2019wah denied claims that the government was involved in the abduction of demonstrators, particularly during the June 2024 Finance Bill protests. \u201cI do not believe there are enforced disappearances perpetuated by the state in Kenya,\u201d he insisted. However, human rights organizations paint a different picture. The Kenya Human Rights Commission reports that since President Ruto took office in 2022, at least 63 civilians have died due to police violence, 65 people have been forcibly disappeared, and over 1,400 protesters have been unlawfully detained. Ichung\u2019wah was challenged on specific cases, including claims by former Attorney General Justin Muturi that his son was abducted by state security agencies after participating in the 2024 protests. Muturi alleges his son was only released after President Ruto personally intervened. Ichung\u2019wah dismissed the claim, saying, \u201cI tell you emphatically, he has reasons to lie. He\u2019s playing politics with a very unfortunate incident.\u201d He went further to suggest that Muturi, now serving as Cabinet …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2733"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2735,"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2733\/revisions\/2735"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.moradiofm.co.ke\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}