Siaya Governor James Orengo has asked Kenyans to join the Gen Zs’ Tuesday protests so as to register their dissatisfaction with President William Ruto’s ways of running the country’s affairs.

Orengo said that despite receiving warnings from young Kenyans, Ruto still makes mistakes, to the extent of forming a cabinet without proper consultation.

Orengo said the president has again failed to consult the young Kenyans and nominated his cabinet, yet he knows very well that it’s Gen Z that caused their sacking.

He criticized President Ruto for ignoring Kenyan pressing issues and reinstating Cabinet Secretaries, whose actions left several families bereaved and others suffering gunshot wounds.

Governor Orengo said Kenya is about the engine of a car that knocked and must be repaired.

“This country won’t move yet unless the President fixes its engine,” Orengo said, adding that re-instating the Cabinet Secretaries and appointing a few fresh nominees means replacing new tyres in a vehicle with a faulty engine.

Orengo, while speaking during the burial of Jane Ombuoro in Rarieda Sub-County on Saturday, July 20, 2024, backed up the Gen Z movement in their quest for reforms in the country.

“In my view, we need an intervention in which Ruto, as president, cannot be a determinant of the resolutions.

“Every laurel that we are trying to ride on is a result of these young people. It was they who demanded the dissolution of the cabinet and the withdrawal of the controversial Finance Bill through their non-stop protests.

Orengo, who was accompanied by Education Executive Edgar Otumba, said President Ruto could have sorted out issues of injustice.

“The first business that Ruto should have considered in order to give a pathway towards resolutions of the problem and have a proper perspective of what must be done was to resolve issues of injustice,” said Orengo.

He recalled the Serena talks (in 2008) where ending violence and dealing with injustices were prioritized.

“Those who were in court, arrested, and charged were set free as a way of creating an environment, and so a similar strategy should play out in solving this mess.

“Up until Friday, we were still burying Kenyans whose lives were ended by gunshots, so let’s begin by addressing the injustices,” he said.

Hungry politicians

The Siaya County boss warned politicians hungry for power to hold their horses.

Orengo said certain politicians are quick to take advantage of the Kenyan crisis to reap the rewards, yet they were at the periphery when energy and time were needed.

“It will be foolhardy for people to be seen to be openly enthusiastic about getting into offices without a fundamental consideration of a different agenda and manifesto, and it will make the young people draw the conclusion that the political class is less interested in problems bedeviling this country than in securing their jobs,” he added.

Orengo noted that the young Kenyans have learned that the political class is opportunistic; they (Gen Z) set the agenda, called for the dissolution of the cabinet, and made sure the finance bill was withdrawn, and we (the political class) were the first to look for jobs.

“The political class must now tread carefully with their interests. Even when ex-South African President Nelson Mandela came out of prison, the first business was how to deal with injustice.

“I am equally concerned about the country’s peace and security, but without solving the injustices, peace won’t work,” said Orengo, adding that “I am afraid that the faces who are agitating for peace were nowhere when the country was in crisis.

He further put on notice certain leaders who have been quick in dragging ethnic groups at a time when Kenyans are trying to negotiate on matters that would see normalcy return in the country.

Let’s avoid ethnic ideologies when Kenyans are in negotiations that would bring the country together. When the country has slipped from its rails, it does not call for individuals but all Kenyans energy to get it back.

He regretted that as Kenyans work on resolving the mess the country is in, people are already mobilizing on the basis of ethnic camps, and that again cannot work in this country.

“We must deal with the big question of whether we, as Kenyans, want to leave under one constitution and put it as a pillar or whether we want to deal with how we share opportunities and jobs.