Kevin Fraji Obambo (first pictured) is my former colleague at TV47 Kenya, where he was my senior camera person when I worked as a reporter. Last weekend, while working for Royal Media Services, he was attacked during the political violence that engulfed Homa Bay around the Linda Mwananchi tour. AFP journalists Fred Ooko and Brian Ongoro were also assaulted, injured and robbed of cameras, press cards and other working equipment while carrying out their journalistic duties.
What happened in Homa Bay was not ordinary political competition. It was political barbarism. People were killed, dozens were injured, opposition vehicles were torched, roads were barricaded and journalists were attacked while doing their work. Yet political leaders whose inflammatory rhetoric preceded this mayhem continue walking free. Homa Bay Town MP Peter Kaluma had publicly warned supporters of the “Wantam” slogan and issued threats against hotels that would host Linda Mwananchi leaders. He later continued posting politically provocative messages even after the violence had erupted.
That is why the silence of the DCI, NCIC, National Police Service and other agencies mandated to confront incitement and political violence is becoming deafening. When Mukurwe-ini MP John Kaguchia made remarks considered inflammatory, the State moved with extraordinary speed: detectives pursued him, arrested him and subjected him to the criminal justice process. Why should Peter Kaluma be treated differently? Kenya cannot have one law for government critics and another for politicians conveniently standing with power.
Tonight, fully aware of my responsibilities under Kenyan media law and the ethical standards expected of a professional journalist, I deliberately take a political stand because I am a Kenyan first and a professional journalist second. My first certificate was a Kenyan birth certificate. It came long before my Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from the University of Eastern Africa, Baraton; before my Master’s in Media Practices from Volda University College in Norway; and before my current interest and research in political communication. None of those academic qualifications cancelled the citizenship written on my first certificate. If anything, journalism taught me that the highest responsibility of the profession is not cowardly neutrality, but truth, accountability and the courage to speak truth to power.
I will therefore not hide behind artificial neutrality while my country is being dragged towards organised political violence. I will not pretend that truth must always lie somewhere in the middle when journalists are beaten, opposition convoys are attacked, vehicles are burnt and young people are being pushed into armed political confrontation. Professional journalism demands accuracy and fairness; it does not demand silence in the face of obvious injustice.
President William Ruto, hear me clearly: you have repeatedly described yourself as a hustler who rose to become President of Kenya. You reached the highest political office in the land. You do not need to burn the country to secure a second term. Be grateful that Kenyans gave you the opportunity to become President. If they want you again in 2027, let them freely renew your mandate. If they reject you, leave peacefully and reflect on why they no longer want your leadership. Kenya is bigger than William Ruto, and this country does not have to bleed merely because one man desperately wants another five years.
Kenyans want to be free. We do not need goons determining political narratives. We do not need abductions, torture, intimidation or the killing of young dissenting voices merely because they oppose the regime. We fought through blood and sweat for the democratic freedoms contained in the 2010 Constitution—including press freedom, freedom of expression, association and political choice. Those freedoms cannot now be taken away by a government simply because criticism has become uncomfortable.
The images from Homa Bay were particularly frightening because they showed how dangerously close Kenya is moving towards organised political chaos. Babu Owino and supporters of the Linda Mwananchi convoy may reasonably argue that they had been forced into preparing to defend themselves after hostile groups barricaded roads and confronted them. But the fact that some supporters on their side were also visibly prepared with crude weapons, including pangas, tells an even more terrifying story about where our politics is headed.
That does not make the victims equivalent to those who may have organised attacks against them. It shows the consequences of allowing political goons to operate with impunity. When citizens begin believing that the police will not protect them and that they must therefore prepare their own defence, the country is already entering dangerous territory. Today one side arrives with stones and pangas, the other prepares itself in response; tomorrow guns appear. The politicians will leave in guarded convoys while ordinary young Kenyans lie dead. When two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.
As a Kenyan journalist writing freely from abroad, I condemn this disturbing trend without apology. Kenya is being pushed towards a dangerous 2027 General Election if organised political violence, goons and selective policing continue to be tolerated. We have seen opposition rallies attacked, churches invaded, political meetings disrupted and journalists assaulted. This nonsense must stop before the country crosses a line from which returning will become extremely difficult.
ICTV E-Press therefore takes a clear position: Peter Kaluma must be summoned and investigated over his public remarks preceding the Homa Bay violence. If evidence establishes incitement or any role in organising the mayhem, he must be arrested and arraigned just as John Kaguchia was. Every goon involved must equally be identified, apprehended and made to face the full force of the law.
If Kaluma can make inflammatory statements, watch Homa Bay descend into violence and then remain untouched while government critics are arrested for comparable accusations, then Kenyans will be justified in concluding that the law has become a political weapon. And if the government continues tolerating goons who appear wherever opposition leaders attempt to hold meetings, then I will have no difficulty describing President Ruto’s administration for what it increasingly risks becoming: a goon regime.
I also challenge Kenyan media houses. There comes a time when balancing a clear truth against an obvious lie becomes cowardice disguised as professionalism. Journalism cannot keep calling a spade a small spoon merely because somebody in power might be offended. When journalists themselves are beaten, dragged, robbed of their working equipment and threatened for covering political events, the media must have the courage to call political thuggery exactly what it is.
President Ruto must not be allowed to drag Kenya towards the democratic standards we have condemned in Uganda and Tanzania. Kenya fought too hard to reclaim its democratic space. We defeated that politics years ago, and we must not surrender our freedoms now to goons, political intimidation and the desperation of leaders afraid of losing power.
I take full responsibility for these words.
Summon Peter Kaluma. Arrest the goons. Protect journalists. Stop political intolerance. Protect Kenya’s democracy. And let Kenyans—not gangs, police intimidation or political violence—decide who governs them in 2027.
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