Kisumu Woman Rep Ruth Odinga has condemned the violence that disrupted Linda Mwananchi rallies in Homa Bay, warning that rising political intolerance poses a threat to Kenya’s democratic freedoms.
Odinga, the daughter of the late former Vice-President Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, criticised the alleged mobilisation of young people to disrupt political gatherings and strongly condemned attacks on journalists covering the events.
She urged political leaders to reject violence and uphold the rights to peaceful assembly, movement and expression.
Her remarks followed clashes in Homa Bay on Sunday, August 16, during the Linda Mwananchi movement’s activities.
Roads were reportedly blocked with stones and logs, vehicles were vandalised, and one vehicle was set on fire. Several people, including journalists, were injured.
Odinga said the attacks represented a threat not only to political activity but also to constitutional freedoms.
“My heart is bleeding at the events preceding Homa Bay Linda Mwananchi's scheduled rallies today. I condemn, without reservation, the use of our young sons and daughters to propagate violent attacks in Homa Bay, in a bid to stop Linda Mwananchi from conducting their series of rallies. I equally condemn, in the strongest terms, the assault on journalists Fred Ooko and Brian Ongoro of AFP, who were attacked and had their equipment destroyed simply for doing their jobs.”
She said attacks on journalists undermine the public’s right to receive information, while targeting political convoys threatens the freedoms of movement, assembly and association.
“An attack on the press is an attack on every Kenyan's right to know. Attacking a political convoy is an attack on the right of every Kenyan to move, assemble, and associate freely – rights our Constitution guarantees and that too many of our people have paid for in blood.”
Odinga linked the violence to the region’s history of political struggle, recalling the sacrifices made by prominent leaders in the fight for democracy and political pluralism.
“My late father, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, spent a lifetime being punished – through detention, through the banning of his party, through decades in the political wilderness – simply for insisting that Kenyans deserved a real choice at the ballot.”
She also recalled the deaths of Argwings-Kodhek, Tom Mboya and Prof Crispin Odhiambo Mbai, a Homa Bay-born academic who chaired the Devolution Committee during the constitutional review process.
Odinga said the region should not allow political disagreements to return to violence.
“We must take stock as a community. We have had men and women who believed political disagreement should be settled with argument, not with pangas, stones, and hired goons. They believed that a rally is not a crime and that a dissenting voice is not an enemy.”
She placed responsibility on political leaders, accusing them of mobilising and funding young people to disrupt lawful gatherings.
“We, the leaders, stand accused. We are the ones mobilizing and funding the youth to disrupt lawful gatherings. We are rattling pretty fast towards a dark abyss, and when we get there, getting out of it will be a different story.”
Odinga called for an immediate end to political violence, urging leaders to ensure Homa Bay and Nyanza become places where political disagreements are settled through dialogue rather than confrontation.
“We owe our children a Homa Bay and a Nyanza, where political disagreement is a conversation, not a battlefield.”