Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen’s inflammatory characterisation of Wednesday’s youth protests as a “coup attempt” represents a dangerous escalation in the Ruto administration’s assault on constitutional freedoms and democratic expression.

The minister’s reckless rhetoric not only deliberately distorts reality but also threatens to criminalise the basic right to peaceful protest. 

Murkomen’s hyperbolic claims that the June 25, 2025, demonstrations constituted “terrorism disguised as dissent” and an “unconstitutional attempt” to overthrow the government are baseless and part of a calculated attempt to undermine legitimate political opposition and justify the State’s violent crackdown on citizens exercising their constitutional rights.

The minister’s words amount to fear-mongering at its most cynical, designed to shift public attention away from the government’s failures and toward manufactured threats to national security. 

The minister’s assertion that police showed “remarkable restraint” during protests that killed at least 16 people – all from gunshot wounds, according to Amnesty International – reveals a shocking disconnect from reality.

How can the killings of innocent citizens, including 19-year-old David Mwangi, who had merely gone to pick up his younger brother from academic lessons, be characterised as restraint? How can the death of 17-year-old Dennis Njuguna, shot dead in Molo, represent anything other than excessive force?

These were not terrorists or coup plotters. They were young Kenyans with dreams and families who mourned their senseless deaths. 

Yes, a night of looting and arson followed Wednesday’s youth demonstrations. On Thursday, June 26, 2025, morning, smoke was still billowing from several buildings in downtown Nairobi.

But Murkomen appears to ignore the peaceful nature of most of the protesters, who carried branches as symbols of non-violent resistance and chanted legitimate political slogans.

Instead, he cherry-picks incidents of violence to paint all protesters as criminals, a familiar tactic reminiscent of authoritarian regimes seeking to justify repression. 

It should worry every patriotic Kenyan that the minister’s apparent strategy is to lay the groundwork for serious criminal charges against protesters and opposition figures.

By labelling demonstrations as coup attempts, he’s trying to create legal justification for prosecuting citizens under terrorism and treason statutes, charges that carry severe penalties and could effectively silence political dissent.

His targeting of President Ruto’s opponents as alleged “planners” of this fabricated coup reveals the partisan nature of his accusations. 

Murkomen’s incendiary language serves several dangerous purposes: it provides cover for police brutality, criminalises legitimate opposition, and creates a climate of fear that could deter future democratic participation. 

The minister is playing a dangerous game, and we demand that he immediately retract his baseless accusations and acknowledge the constitutional right of Kenyans to peaceful protest.

The government owes the families of those killed a full investigation and accountability, not inflammatory rhetoric designed to justify their deaths.