Safina Party Deputy Leader Willis Otieno has asked President William Ruto to immediately stop selective enforcement in dealing with goons.

Using his X handle on Wednesday, July 22, 2026, Otieno argued that Ruto’s access to national security intelligence should enable the government to identify those financing organised violence.

“Mr Ruto, as Commander-in-Chief, you have access to actionable intelligence and the full apparatus of the national security architecture,” Otieno said.

He urged the President to distinguish peaceful protesters from people involved in criminal activities.

“Do not conflate constitutionally protected peaceful demonstrators with organised criminal elements,” he added.

Otieno demands action against financiers

Otieno said the government should go beyond apprehending people found causing violence on the streets.

He challenged security agencies to pursue financiers, coordinators and political patrons linked to organised criminal groups.

“If the State possesses intelligence identifying the financiers, coordinators, or political patrons of these proxy actors, then dismantle the command-and-control structure through lawful investigation and prosecution,” he said.

According to Otieno, targeting selected individuals while protecting influential figures would undermine the rule of law.

“Selective enforcement only entrenches impunity and erodes public confidence in the rule of law,” he stated.

The Safina Party official warned that unchecked criminal groups could weaken Kenya’s institutions.

“Kenya must not descend into the institutional fragility and chronic instability witnessed in Haiti or the urban conflict that engulfed Khartoum,” he said.

He insisted that the government must apply the law equally, regardless of political affiliation.

“The State’s monopoly on the legitimate use of force must be exercised impartially, constitutionally, and without political expediency,” Otieno added.

Otieno previously challenged Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen to explain why people captured carrying weapons during political confrontations were not immediately apprehended and prosecuted.

Ruto orders crackdown on goons

Otieno’s statement followed Ruto’s directive to security agencies to intensify operations against goons and organised criminal groups.

Speaking at State House, Nairobi, on Tuesday, July 21, 2026, Ruto said criminal conduct must not be defended as youth activism or political mobilisation.

“Now we have goons. I don’t know whether we want to say again that they are our kids,” Ruto said.

The President maintained that demonstrations were constitutionally protected. However, he said criminals had exploited some protests to steal, destroy property and burn buildings.

“There cannot be any defence for criminality and for breaking the law,” Ruto said.

He directed security agencies to operate within the law while stopping criminal groups across Kenya.

Otieno’s intervention now places pressure on the administration to ensure the crackdown reaches financiers and political patrons, not only people operating on the streets.