Raila blasts Ruto over order to shoot protesters
National
By
Brian Otieno
| Jul 12, 2025
Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga has criticised President William Ruto’s illegal orders to the police to shoot rioters, his strongest rebuke of Dr Ruto since they shook hands last year.
In a stinging statement, the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party leader said such action threatens to hand the police “illegitimate and deadly” powers over citizens.
Raila, who warned that such orders would entrench the “militarised approach to policing” said such directives put the nation at the risk of violence.
“We are all better served as a country when we stick to the principle that everyone is innocent until proven guilty; a determination that can only be made by a competent court of law,” said Raila, whose ODM party signed a cooperation agreement with the ruling United Democratic Alliance in March.
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The dejure Opposition leader has recently criticised Ruto’s administration over excesses, such as wanton abductions of State critics.
Earlier this week, Raila proposed dialogue through an “intergenerational conclave” to chart a way out of the protests that have rattled Kenya since last year.
“Let us prioritise arrests and arraignment in courts over the killing, maiming or brutalising of suspects. This preserves the dignity and respects the human rights of suspects while at the same time conferring credibility to the actions of the State,” argued the former premier.
On Wednesday, an angry Ruto told the police to shoot looters and arsonists in the legs, an unlawful order as the Constitution prevents the Inspector General of Police from taking operational orders from any person. He was reacting to Monday’s Saba Saba protests, which saw 31 people killed, according to the Kenya National Commission for Human Rights, and businesses looted or burned down.
“Anyone burning down someone else’s business and property should be shot in the legs, so that they will pass through the hospital as they go to court. They (the police) should not kill them, but they should hit them and break their legs,” Ruto ranted.
The Head of State’s remarks were largely vague, given that he has previously termed legitimate protesters “anarchists”, with Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen labelling them coup plotters.
Under such circumstances, it is difficult to tell who falls under the blanket tag of “looters and arsonists”, given that the government has treated demonstrators as criminals, with the police meeting them on the streets with live rounds, tear gas and water cannons.
Hours after Ruto made the chilling threat, Belgut Member of Parliament Nelson Koech, who chairs the National Assembly’s Defence, Intelligence and Foreign Relations Committee, doubled down, saying rioters should be killed.
“Shoot and kill. You cannot have someone coming after your life… terrorising you and your family, and you cannot shoot and kill,” a livid Koech erupted in Kericho.
Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen has also issued illegal directives to the police to shoot and kill protesters.
More recently, youthful protesters have demanded accountability for the killings, abductions and torture of government critics.