LSK President Faith Odhiambo’s Questions to Ruto, Religious Leaders & Those Who Should Be Doing Something

By Faith Odhiambo

I speak to you on this black Tuesday not just as an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya but equally as a peace-loving patriot. Apart from being the LSK President, I am a mother, an aunt, a sister, a daughter and a wife. Like all mothers whose children have been killed, injured, tortured or abducted in the hands of cops, I feel the pain of my countrymen.

The Gen Z who you call children are out in the streets fighting for you fellow parents in National Police Service, Parliament, Cabinet and air-conditioned government offices. Just imagine, your child is out there seeking justice when you are comfortably enjoying life.

Have we no shame? Are we still a God-fearing nation?

To the Clergy, council of imams and preachers, where are you today as the country goes down the slopes of dictatorship without respect to the rule of law?

Where is my beloved Catholic Church or what became of the Kenyan Conference of Catholic Bishops? Where is the Anglican Church of Kenya and the National Council of Churches when young Kenyans are being dropped dead by bullets from Police Officers? Does the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims still exist?

When the time comes to perform burial rites to the dead protesters, what will you tell their family members? Where was the shepherd when the enemy raided and scattered the flock? What stops you men of the cloth from joining peaceful Kenyans in the streets or are you comfortably hiding behind the pulpit waiting for us to come on Friday, Saturday, Sunday carrying gifts, offertory and tithes? Is that all that you care about?

Even if it’s not for the Finance Bill then please come out and let’s protect our children, our brothers, our sisters, or better still your grandchildren.

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen from the diplomatic corps, you may not be Kenyans, it’s okay and we get it. However, does it bother you when armed police officers engage peaceful 15, 17 to 19-year-old girls and boys in running battles?

Your Excellency Meg Whitman, wasn’t it historic enough that on Monday June 24, 2024 as Haiti-bound Kenyan Police Officers took to the skies, your boss President Joseph R Biden invoked section 517 of America’s Foreign Assistance Act designating Kenya as a major non-NATO ally of the United States of America?

Congratulations madam Ambassador! Kenyans today enjoyed the first fruits of being a non-NATO ally.

And to you, Neil Wigan OBE – his Majesty’s High Commissioner to the Republic of Kenya, is the King Happy with the deaths of Rex Kanyike Masai, Evans Kiratu and several other protesters shot dead today outside Parliament?

Journalists covering the protests have been shot by uniformed police officers while doctors are being abducted. Where is the Media Council of Kenya, Editors Guild, Public Relations Society, COTU, KNUT and all other professional bodies in this noble quest for Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Assembly and right to picket?

My senior Professor Kindiki Kithure, as an advocate of the High Court of Kenya, would you care to answer us today? What happened to the rights of an arrested person? Why take Kenyan Police officers to Haiti when we are sliding down into chaos and anarchy in the hands of the same law enforcers?

In a bid to raise extra 302billion shillings via Finance Bill 2024, blood must be shed. Every Kenyan today who has lost his or her life in the struggle to stamp out corruption and seek economic liberation lies in the hands of a rogue and inconsiderate President. I congratulate you because history will remember you as the President that had to kill his people to raise more money.

June 25, 2024 will go down in history as the day Kenyans died so that their president could please the colonial masters in the name of staggered tax measures recommended for implementation by the of International Monetary Fund (IMF).

We pray for the wounded in hospitals as we mourn our dead loved ones.

We seek Justice; LSK calls upon the international criminal investigation authorities to help poor Kenyan families’ quest for Justice. We have reports and videos that show Kenya Army soldiers engaging protester in Parliament. We want answers under what law did the president use to deploy Kenya Defence forces on Kenyan soil.

No penny is worth human life!

No amount of taxation, threats and intimidation will stop this journey for Justice.

Faith Odhiambo is the President of the Law Society of Kenya (LSK)