Former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has urged the government to consider dialogue and engage citizens to restore peace and order in the country. This appeal followed a series of violent anti-Finance Bill protests on Tuesday, June 25, 2024, which resulted in loss of lives as demonstrators stormed Parliament.
Several deaths were also reported in other parts of the country as citizens protested against the Bill. In a statement dated June 25, 2024, Uhuru urged President William Ruto to listen to the cries of the people.
“My fellow Kenyans, I come to you with a heavy heart. Saddened by the loss of lives occasioned by the current situation prevailing in our country.
“It is the right of every Kenyan to protest, as determined by the constitution we all promulgated in 2010. It is also the duty of leaders to listen to those they lead. At this trying time for our country, I want to remind all leaders that they were elected by the people.
Listening to the people is not a choice but a mandate enshrined in the principles of our constitution and in the very basis and philosophy of democracy. Leaders must know that the power and authority they have is donated to them by the people.
I therefore call for calm and for the leadership to show restraint and do the right thing by listening to the people and not being antagonistic to them. Violence on either side is not the answer.
As your former president, I have felt the weight and the difficulty of leading Kenya. I therefore pray for wisdom and civility to be established and for peace and progress to belong to all of us as children of Kenya.
Dear Kenyans, I stand with you, and I ask our leadership to embrace dialogue and speak to the people and not at the people.”
“I pray for peace and understanding on the part of each and every Kenyan and for all of us to remember that Kenya is bigger than one of us; there is nothing cast in stone that cannot be changed.
God bless Kenya.”
