Safina Party deputy leader designate Willis Evans Otieno has criticised the government over a relief food distribution exercise in Gatundu South Constituency that sparked public outrage after chaotic scenes emerged showing residents scrambling for spilled food.

In a post on X dated February 1, 2026, Otieno reacted to a viral video documenting the incident, describing the exercise as a humiliating display that exposed deep failures in leadership and public service delivery.

“This is how power rots. When leaders stop seeing people as human beings and start treating hunger as a photo-op,” Otieno wrote.

Chaos in food distribution

The incident occurred on January 31, 2026, during a government-led distribution of food and non-food items targeting more than 1,200 vulnerable households affected by food shortages following failed short rains.

The exercise was spearheaded by Correctional Services Principal Secretary Salome Beacco in collaboration with local leaders and was intended to support widows, widowers and other at-risk groups in Gatundu South.

However, the operation descended into disorder after bags of rice and beans reportedly spilt onto the tarmac, prompting residents, many of them elderly, to scramble on the ground to collect the food amid dust and confusion.

The viral footage shared widely on social media captured scenes of people rushing forward, bending to pick grains from the road and jostling for food scattered across the surface.

Otieno’s political response

In his remarks, Otieno framed the episode as a reflection of leadership that prioritises optics over dignity.

“Regimes that normalise humiliation eventually discover that humiliated people do not forget. They may endure, but they keep records in memory, in anger, and in time,” he wrote.

Otieno, who is Jimi Wanjigi’s running mate in the Safina Party, linked the incident to broader concerns over economic pressure, rising food prices and the impact of drought on vulnerable communities.

Government officials have yet to issue a direct response to the backlash, though the initiative had been presented as part of wider food security interventions in drought-affected areas.

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This comes hours after Otieno criticised Members of Parliament over a five-day legislative retreat in Naivasha, accusing them of hypocrisy for preaching austerity while indulging in luxury funded by taxpayers.

The Safina Party deputy leader designate faulted lawmakers for holding the retreat at a high-end resort amid rising taxes and economic strain, arguing that Parliament lacked the moral authority to demand sacrifice from citizens while maintaining lavish privileges.