The action Kenyan young patriots took on June 25, 2024 was being organized by the youth weeks before the actual demonstrations took place in Nairobi and the demonstrators took over the Kenyan Parliament. These young Kenyans fighting for a better country are very good in communicating with each other as they plan things that need to be done.
By June 24, 2024 from the information now available to the public the action plan was in place for a peaceful demonstration in Nairobi City to reject the Ruto Finance Bill 2024/25
The largely peaceful rallies turned violent when lawmakers passed the legislation and police fired live rounds of bullets right at the demonstrators and crowds went inside the parliament to stop MPs from passing the Tax bill.
After that it was violence and mayhem everywhere for anybody in the streets and the police took over and their job was to shoot and kill those young Kenyans and drown them in tear gas even after they were already dead lying on the ground. The whole scene shocked everybody in the country by the sheer brutality of the Kenyan police.
At least 13 people were confirmed killed in the anti-tax hike protests by the records of doctor’s association the next day.
Most government officials, including President William Ruto, supported the bill. They considered it a good deal because it would generate government revenue. Many citizens however were saying that the taxes in the Finance Bill 2024/2025 were unbearable. The determined young Kenyans refused to give up and went on to show President Ruto that even death will not stop them from fighting for their country.
President Ruto meanwhile even as Kenyans were being killed in the streets as the whole country watched vowed to deal with those protesting his Finance Bill 24/25 and made some very dangerous statements about his next moves.
According to media reports at the time, President Ruto condemned the violent protests, describing them as treasonous, and vowed to take tough measures to restore order. In a televised address from State House, Ruto stated, “We shall provide a full and expeditious response to the treasonous events.” He warned those financing the violence of severe consequences.
Ruto also accused the Ford Foundation of sponsoring anarchy in Kenya, allegations that were simply inventions of Ruto who was looking for every excuse to keep killing young Kenyans fighting for a better financial budget for their country.
By the president calling the events in the streets of Nairobi that day as Kenyans were demanding a reasonable budget as treason and promising to “a full and expeditious response to the treasonous events. ” President Ruto was giving direct orders to the police to shoot and kill anybody out there because that is what is done to people who commit treason and Ruto was telling the cops those people were out there to overthrow his government.
This statement and order to the police makes President William Ruto directly responsible for all the police killings on that day because the police were doing what the head of state ordered them to do.
This is enough evidence to take William Ruto to the ICC in relation to the killings on June 25, 2024 because he directly ordered them and the killings were done as he demanded his police to do.
As a result of President Ruto’s threats armed Kenya police stormed every part in the centre of the city where most of protests were being held by the young people who had shown Ruto that they were not scared of him and his police.
The Kenyan youth did not back down and they were very proud of their country and they forced President Ruto to see and learn that the terror and fear tactics he was using on them was terrible but they were not going anywhere unless the Finance Bill 2024/25 was thrown to hell where it belonged.
On June 26, 2024, President William Ruto bowed to the protesters’ pressure and announced he would not sign the finance bill into law after it was passed in parliament and sent to him.
In reality this was a stop gap move by President Ruto to pretend that he heard what the young Kenyans were fighting for and he would respect their wishes.
From what all Kenyans know with this man William Ruto as president he was still going to what he thought was good for him not what was good for Kenya and certainly not what young the Kenyans were asking for.
The reality is that there has been endless abductions of Kenyans by the Ruto government since June 25, 2024 and Ruto cannot pretend that he does not know who is committing those crimes because his juniors in the police force would never do anything without his approval. There has been abductions and killing of Kenyans now for one full year now.
We have many Kenyan youth abducted and many are still missing. There is no such thing as a person missing after they have been grabbed by the Kenya police. They are either dead or being held in some secret holes only known to President Ruto and his friends.
One demand that all Kenyans must make to William Ruto on the day of the June 25 anniversary is that there should not be one Kenyan missing anymore. If they are alive free them and let them go home right away.
If they have been killed by Ruto’s cops then the president needs to come out right after the anniversary and give their bodies to their families. There should be absolutely no compromise on that critical issue. Mr. President, you have tortured these young people and maybe killed them, please don’t torture their parents by hiding them in your caves.
Take the case of this young man Peter Macharia who is listed as a missing person after being arrested on June 25, 2024.
His parents found documents at Kenyatta National Hospital showing that he had been treated for a gunshot wound and discharged. But there was no sign of him in the wards. No contact. No body. No explanation.
“He left to protest. He believed in the cause,” Alice Wambui his mother recalls “But he never came back.”
For the past 12 months, Alice has searched tirelessly—through morgues, hospitals, police stations. If the police killed him the Ruto government need to acknowledge that and get his body from wherever they buried him back to his mother who is going everywhere looking for him or his body.
Our second demand as a country is to ask President Ruto to immediately end all abductions, torture and killing of Kenyans and there has to be no more foot dragging on this deadly issue for Kenyans.
Albert Ojwang, who was married with a young son, graduated with a Bachelor of Education degree a few years ago.
The president just presided over the truly brutal killing of Albert Ojwang’ and even after that Kenyans are being shot point blank by the Kenya police in full confidence that such actions are acceptable to their boss at State House.
As a matter of fact when young Kenyans came to the streets to demand justice for Albert Ojwang’ a few days ago this is what the police did to a Kenyan youth who was just selling his stuff in the streets.
The police shot him in the head point blank while standing right in front of him and seeing all he was doing was selling face masks and posed no danger whatsoever to the cops who shot him. This is police brutality at another level because the cops are behaving like wild animals who just want to kill.
The 22-year-old Boniface Kariuki who was shot by the police is now lying in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the hospital in Nairobi and we beg God to make him survive. His family is in total turmoil waiting for any good news about him.
The parents to Boniface Kariuki, mother Susan Njeri kariuki and the father John Kariuki with relatives after visiting Boniface Kariuki in the ICU at Kenyatta National Hospital on June 21, 2025.
Our third demand is justice for all the victims of Ruto state terrorism and their families. There will be no compromise on that critical issue to help survivors and families deal with all these tragedies. Take the case of Albert Ojwang’ where every Kenyan knows that his terrible torture and murder was planned and paid for by the Deputy Inspector General of the Kenya Police Force, Eliud Lagat which means he is a man very close to the president by rank.
A police constable who Lagat gave money to and ordered to go torture and kill Albert has provided all that information to the investigation authorities. Why is this man Eliud Lagat not in jail where he belongs. He should be prosecuted immediately and sent to jail mara moja.
There are so many other cases and they are pretty much endless because the Ruto government never allows his police officers to face justice. Why is that and who benefits from the blockade against taking these killers to court.
Mr. President Kenyans are throwing you out of this place in 2027 Upende Usipende. That is what Kenyans are fighting to achieve right now and they are going to get it done because the country cannot afford to have a bloody criminal and robber of public resources in that place any longer and you are asking them to kick you out of there. They will.
The last demand for now and I say that because even President Ruto knows that our ultimate goal and requirement as a country is to get him out of State House in 2027 without fail but for now we would say that the Ruto government needs to listen to Kenyans as we propose a comprehensive and fair compensation for all Gen Z victims of government abuse, brutality, murder, detention in secret places and all other crimes President Ruto has committed against Kenyans.
The victims of Kenya state abuse and their families must be at the centre of designing a real process of compensation. Nobody can design that for them but themselves. President Ruto the other day offered Sh. 2 million shillings Albert Ojwang’ family to deal with the trauma and tragedy they are facing now. There is no problem with that because those families are just broken to pieces. But that is money to help them bury their son and nothing else.
The next step is to put in place a real plan to compensate all the victims and their families in a meaningful way with real money and not tokenism and that has to be done within a binding legal framework because it is not charity to these Kenyans who have faced so much suffering and can barely move their lives forward. That has to be done right away.
Former Chief Justice David Maraga on Saturday visited the home of the late Albert Ojwang’ in Homa Bay county to condole with the family.
