‘Gen Zs will send you into political oblivion,’ MP Babu Owino tells President Ruto

Embakasi East Member of Parliament Babu Owino has chided President William Ruto over his failure to take accountability for the death of Kenyan youth during the recent wave of anti-government protests.

Mr. Owino, who spoke on Friday during the burial of a Gen Z protester Rex Kanyeki Masai in Machakos County, said President Ruto had failed Kenyans as a leader and he ought to step down.

The outspoken MP chastised the Head of State over the deaths of innocent protesters, saying that he should have attended the burial to mourn Rex instead of holding an engagement forum on X Spaces.

He opined that Ruto’s adamancy and unpopular leadership decision that has recently pitted him against the majority of Kenyans, especially the Gen Zs, will ultimately lead to his political downfall.

“If Ruto were a President or a leader, he would be here today to comfort the family of Rex, but he is not. If he were a President, he would be here today to pay his last respects. He would take responsibility for every life that has been lost unnecessarily in this country during this struggle, but he is not,” stated Mr. Owino.

“Instead of pursuing your selfish political ambition on X Space, you should have come here and let us have a conversation by the grave of Rex. We want to converse with you on the graveside not on X Space.”

He added: “I can promise you that the Gen Zs you are seeing here today and in this country, the millennials and the Kenyan youths will send you into political oblivion, which is the entombment of the unworthy into their own dust of nothingness. We want you to come from being a President into being a resident.”

According to the legislator, Ruto’s administration has continuously frustrated Kenyans with the high cost of living characterized by increased taxes and corruption scandals such as the fake fertiliser saga.

“Because he is not a leader, he is a dealer. He is dealing with our lives and killing our children and is on a mission and not on a vision. A vision to kill the young people, to increase the high cost of medication and a vision to destroy the country for the worst,” he said.

“Rex and other Gen Zs died fighting to liberate this nation because the cost of education is high, no medicines in hospitals, and our children and farmers are going without food because you are selling fake fertilisers to our farmers.”

Also present at the burial were Azimio la Umoja One Kenya coalition principals who accused the President of siding with what they termed as injustice and curtailing constitutional rights by congratulating the police even though their excesses were obvious.

“Wewe bwana Ruto huwezi sema you have the table of dialogue when you have unleashed the military against our youth, hawa vijana walienda wakiwa na simu na maji…Rex walikuwa na simu na maji…two things…hii maji sio risasi,” DAP-K party leader Eugene Wamalwa said.

Wiper Party leader Kalonzo Musyoka added: “Si halali kabisa kumpiga Mkenya aliyejifunika bendera ya Kenya…bendera ya Kenya is sacrosanct…kijana akauawa akawa wa kwanza kwa mauaji 41.”

The 29-year-old Rex, who was the first victim of the Gen Z-led demonstrations, was shot by a plainclothes police officer on June 18, 2024 at about 7pm along the streets of Nairobi during the anti-Finance Bill protests.

CCTV footage showed the officer firing not one, not two, but multiple live bullets believed to have ended Rex’s life.

The family of Rex is now demanding justice for a young man who lost his life during peaceful protests.