Okoa Uchumi Slams Ruto’s Apology as Hollow, Demands Justice for State Abuses and Economic Betrayal

Civil society group Okoa Uchumi has issued a scathing rebuke of President William Ruto’s recent conditional apology, accusing the government of evading accountability for a string of grave human rights abuses and economic injustices.

In a powerful statement released Thursday, the campaign condemned what it called the “weaponization of conditional apologies” amid ongoing national grief and unrest.

President Ruto, speaking at a recent public address, had said, “To our children, if there is any misstep, we apologize,”—a comment Okoa Uchumi slammed as vague and insincere.

“There is no ‘if’ when the evidence is written in the wounds of a nation,” the statement reads, referencing the killing of youth during protests, the disappearance of dozens of citizens, and the surveillance and harassment of journalists and critics.

The campaign further accused the government of betrayal in its foreign policy response, particularly in its muted stance following the alleged torture and inhumane treatment of Kenyan citizens in Tanzania.

“It is pretentious to believe the same mouth that denied accountability can now deliver justice to grieving Kenyans,” the group declared, criticizing the President’s apology to Tanzania while failing to demand justice for affected Kenyan nationals.

Okoa Uchumi also turned its focus to the country’s economic crisis, describing the 2025 budget as a “Budget of Betrayal.”

They decried cuts to education, child services, and healthcare, contrasting them with ballooning allocations for security, surveillance, and elite comforts.

With hundreds of billions of shillings in pending bills and mounting debt repayments, the group warned that Kenya is already in “debt default.”

Rejecting symbolic gestures like apologies at prayer breakfasts, Okoa Uchumi called for urgent systemic reforms.

These include firm diplomatic action to protect Kenyans across East Africa, an independent inquiry into state violence, transparent audits of public debt, criminal investigations into corruption, restoration of social sector budgets, and implementation of constitutional provisions on integrity and accountability.

“This campaign is not against Kenya. It is for Kenya,” Okoa Uchumi affirmed, calling for a country where justice is not “mumbled in prayers but written into policy, practice, and public life.”