President ignores security despite poor State record

Police officers pursue protesters along Thika Road during Saba Saba Day commemoration in Nairobi on July 07, 2025. [Stafford Ondego, Standard]

President William Ruto focused of four areas but ignored security, which is equally crucial in his agenda of economic revival.

At the end of his two-hour address, Dr Ruto handed to the Speakers of Parliament Moses Wetang'ula and Amason Kingi, the State of Security Report expected to be scrutinised by the National Assembly and Senate.

“I hand over the reports to the Speaker of the Senate and to the Speaker of the National Assembly,” said the Head of State to the disappointment of human rights defenders who faulted Ruto.

Activists had expected the President to talk about extra-judicial killings, enforced disappearances and gross human violations witnessed in the past three years.

According to Amnesty International Kenya Executive Director Irungu Houghton, Ruto squandered the opportunity to offer an update on steps being taken by his administration to bring perpetrators to book, and made no pledge to prevent recurrence.

“President Ruto’s State of the Nation Address completely ignored last year’s grave human rights violations that followed his administration’s responses to the mass protests that nearly toppled his government in 2024. There was no mention of the 128 killed, the 190 abducted during protests and the use of state surveillance to intimidate protesters, mostly young Kenyans,” he said.

Since ascending to power in 2022, Ruto’s administration has been accused of consistently abusing the right to life, right to privacy, freedom to associate and petition, protection of right to property among other fundamental rights.

“Under the current regime, we had the highest number of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and torture never witnessed in the country’s history,” said Haki Yetu Organisation Executive Director Peter Kiama in a recent interview.

According Kiama, President Ruto has little regard of the Constitution and has weakened statutory institutions mandated to protect rights and freedoms.

Though independent human rights groups have given varying numbers of those killed and missing, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR), a state agency, recorded 60 cases of extrajudicial killings and 71 cases of abductions and enforced disappearances between July 2023 and November 2024.

“Article 29 of the Constitution gives an assurance of every person’s right not to be subjected to any form of violence from either public or private sources or to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. The commission regrets the resurgence of cases of abductions and enforced disappearances allegedly committed by members of the National Police Service and National Intelligence Service,” stated KNCHR in its report released in November titled "State of Human Rights in Kenya: Assessing the Progress Made and Areas of Concern".