Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah has shed light on his decision to oppose the proposed march to State House during the June 25 demonstrations led by Gen Z protesters. Speaking candidly, Omtatah revealed that there was immense pressure on the ground for demonstrators to advance toward the seat of power a move he believed could have ended in tragedy.
“There was a very big pressure for people to march to the State House,” Omtatah said, adding that he made deliberate efforts to monitor the protests and discourage such action. “I believed people were going to be killed. And I didn’t want another life lost, when we were just commemorating the death of other people.”
Omtatah warned that if violence had erupted at the gates of State House, it could have thrown the country into chaos, potentially leading to a power vacuum or unconstitutional takeover. “If people are shot, and those shooting run away, power can be taken in a chaotic manner,” he noted. “We could end up jumping from the frying pan into the fire.”
Instead, Omtatah urged young people to harness their energy for long-term political transformation through democratic means. He emphasized the importance of mass voter registration, particularly among the youth, as a pathway to sustainable change.
“We must manage this anger, this demand for good governance, in a clever way. Using the Constitution, we can engineer a revolution, and that revolution will have to begin with politics,” he said.
Omtatah further proposed practical measures to enhance electoral transparency, such as requiring the electoral commission to publish the GPS coordinates of all gazetted polling stations to avoid irregularities. “Last time, we discovered a polling station allegedly located in a non-existent primary school. One even had just a gate that’s it,” he said.
While supporting the protestors’ demands for accountability and reform, Omtatah stressed that the movement must remain peaceful and strategic. “This anger must be channelled to a revolution, not to an uprising,” he concluded. “Kenya should avoid an uprising. Organised chaos can take over and you can see where Sudan is.
