Mbeere North MP Geoffrey Ruku has revealed that the Gen Z protests that rocked the country in June 2024 had international backers.
Speaking on K24 TV on Monday morning September 30, 2024, Ruku stressed that the financiers of the anti-government protests came from across the globe.
The Mbeere North MP further elaborated that money was transferred from Kenya to multiple countries across the world which later returned to finance the protests.
“The financiers of June this year’s demonstrations were from different parts of the world. Some of the money was moving from here, from this country finding its way in the UK, in Canada, in New Zealand, in Israel and there were bases which were set in some of these countries for that money to come back to this nation to facilitate the demonstrations,” Ruku said.
“That’s a fact, that’s something which has been proven, these are not rumours that is a fact,” he further insisted.
Gachagua accused
The Mbeere North MP additionally pointed fingers at the office of Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua for having a hand in the anti-government protests.
“There are elements within the government which took advantage of Gen Z protest, they infiltrated the Gen Z protest, they took advantage of it, they brought in criminal elements in the process of demonstrations and that is where the deputy president’s office is being accused,” he said.
His comments echoed those of Belgut MP Nelson Koech who spoke in a different TV interview the same Monday morning.
Gachagua is mounting accusations of orchestrating political violence, as lawmakers prepare for a high-stakes impeachment vote.
In a televised interview on Monday morning, Belgut MP delved into the grounds for Gachagua’s ouster, including accusations of acquiring properties worth billions of shillings and orchestrating violence during the Gen Z protests.
Speaking on the Gen Z protests, the Belgut MP said Gachagua used proxies, MPs allied to him, to orchestrate chaos against the government that he serves.
Koech admitted that the first Gen Z protest was organic, but the subsequent one was hijacked by Gachagua and his proxies.
“The demonstrations that happened, the Gen Z demonstrations. The first one that happened was very organic. The second one was infiltrated by, and you have seen some of my colleagues are supposed to be charged in a court of law. It is pointing into involvement by the deputy president,” Koech said.
“There are grounds good enough to point that the deputy president was involved in using proxies in orchestrating violence against the population of this country,” he added.
Koech was further pressed to explain how Gachagua was involved in the Gen Z protests, yet he has not been charged, unlike his three allies.
In response, Koech noted that he didn’t want to get into the nitty-gritty details, as the mover of the impeachment motion would explain the charges in full at the National Assembly.
“I do not want to divulge much information about this motion that is coming. I am simply trying to highlight some of the grounds of his impeachment,” he stated.
Allies implicated
Gachagua’s allies, including Embakasi West MP George Theuri, former Nyeri Town MP Ngunjiri Wambugu, and Pius Munene, last week successfully petitioned the court to block the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution (ODPP) and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) from prosecuting or arresting them over suspected involvement in the anti-government protests that rocked the country in June 2024.
In a ruling on Friday, September 27, 2024, Justice Lawrence Mugambi certified the matter as urgent, urging the applicants to serve some four respondents in the petition with the conservatory orders before close of business on Friday.
“Pending the hearing and determination of this application, this court hereby issues a conservatory order restraining the Respondents whether by themselves, their officers, servants, agents or acting on their behalf from arresting, detaining, confining, prosecuting or in any other way interfering with the liberty of the Petitioner/Applicants arising out from the allegations raised in this Petition,” Mugambi ruled.
