Democratic Party (DP) leader Justin Muturi has called out President William Ruto over remarks he made during the joint UDA-ODM Parliamentary Group meeting about the corruption in Parliament.

In a statement on Monday, August 25, 2025, Muturi indicated that Ruto’s remarks stem from his own activities and that the rot in the executive is equally appalling.

“When President William Ruto walked into the public square this week and loudly accused Members of Parliament of taking bribes, one could almost mistake it for courage,” Muturi said.

Disgusted by corruption

“He painted himself as a leader disgusted by corruption in the legislature, vowing arrests if names were provided. But beneath the noise lies an undeniable truth: the President himself is the architect and beneficiary of Kenya’s bribery culture in Parliament. His hands are not clean, and his accusations are nothing more than a hollow charade.”

Muturi went ahead to state that Ruto had moved to raid the opposition benches within weeks of his election of 2022 to buy numbers from MPs who had not voted in his favour.

“Let us not forget how we arrived here. The first thing William Ruto did upon assuming power in 2022 was not to build a national consensus, strengthen the rule of law, or deliver on his campaign promises. No, his first political move was to raid the opposition benches,” Muturi said.

“Starved of numbers in Parliament, Ruto turned to the oldest trick in Kenya’s dirty political playbook: buying loyalty. He lured opposition MPs and independents to his side with promises of plum committee positions, cash inducements, and state patronage.”

Post-election alliances

He termed the post-election coalition agreements as unions built on money, corruption, and bribery; vices that Ruto claims he seeks to eradicate.

“Overnight, a fragile minority government turned into a commanding majority. That majority was not built on ideology, policy, or conviction. It was built on money, bribery, and the corruption of parliamentary independence,” Muturi remarked.

“This is the context that makes the President’s sudden outcry against bribery so laughable. How can the very man whose fingerprints are all over the buying of Parliament now turn around and pretend to be shocked that MPs are corruptible? How can the same hand that fed the vice now wave in righteous indignation? It is the height of hypocrisy.”