A section of the North-Eastern Members of Parliament (MPs) has claimed President William Ruto’s administration has neglected the region.

While speaking to the press after the President’s State of the Nation Address on Thursday, November 20, 2025, they released a joint statement saying that from the President’s speech, it was clear that he has nothing planned for their region.

Led by the Wajir East MP, Mahammed Aden Daudi, they decried that the Head of State failed to provide any tangible plan for the Northern Kenya community, noting that key issues affecting the region were not addressed.

He further stated that the region continues to remain marginalised, forgotten, and ignored even in the President’s speech.

He added that the President did not address the ongoing drought affecting most parts of Northern Kenya, with counties like Marsabit going days without rainfall.

With most natives of the region being pastoralists, the Wajir East legislator refuted the President’s claims that Kenya is now producing over 11 million pairs of shoes from locally sourced hides and skins.

“For us in northern Kenya, the issue of meat and leather is not factual; we are not benefiting from the bigger economy. It’s like the president has absolutely ignored northern Kenya. Ours is a protest that we don’t believe in what he said,” he said.

Fafi MP

Fafi MP Farah Yakub Salah, who was in the limelight at the beginning of 2024 for attempting to introduce a parliamentary motion to increase President William Ruto’s term limit, also agreed with his Wajir counterpart, saying that the President’s address clearly showed that he has forgotten their region, as nothing in his speech targeted their constituency.

He went on to say that even the infrastructure and road projects the President mentioned did not include any from the North. He added that none of the dams the President boasted about building were located in their region.

The MP noted that even on livestock, the main economic activity for their constituents, the President offered nothing substantial, and they doubted the accuracy of the figures he presented.

He revealed that this frustration is what pushed them to walk out of the chambers while the President was mid-speech, as they saw nothing tangible for their region.

He concluded by urging the President to go back to the drawing board, saying the North is missing from the national map and that everything the President highlighted seemed to favour other regions, not theirs.