Ruling party UDA accuses Uhuru of plotting to fund mass protests

Former President Uhuru Kenyatta at the Jubilee National Delegates Convention at the Ngong Racecourse in Nairobi, on September 26, 2025. [David Gichuru Standard] As political tensions escalate over rising fuel prices, former President Uhuru Kenyatta's name has been drawn into the debate by the ruling party, which accuses him of covertly bankrolling opposition efforts to destabilise the government. This comes a day after the former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua-led opposition threatened mass action should the government fail to reduce the increased pump prices. Initially, the fuel prices were increased by Sh28 and Sh40 for super petrol and diesel respectively, but were later revised downwards by Sh9 super petrol and Sh10 for diesel. Kenyans will now pay Sh197 for a litre of super petrol and Sh196 for a litre of diesel. The increase in fuel prices has sparked widespread public uproar, with transport sector players threatening industrial action, arguing that the revised costs are worsening the burden on already strained citizens. The opposition, speaking during a press conference on Wednesday, demanded that President Ruto convene a special sitting of Parliament to address the fuel crisis, warning that mass protests would follow if the administration failed to act. "...Failure to which the United Alternative Government shall call for national mass action," said Rigathi Gachagua, while issuing a raft of demands including the cancellation of the G-to-G oil deal and a reduction in fuel taxes. In a sharp rebuttal, UDA Secretary General Hassan Omar dismissed the opposition's narrative as "deceitful, amusing and outright lies," saying the crisis is being driven by entrenched interests linked to the previous regime, remarks widely seen as targeting former President Uhuru. He said the opposition's call for mass protests is a choreographed plot aimed at manufacturing public outrage, paralysing national interventions and pushing the country backwards. "That's why their paymaster and patrons are urging them to call for the sabotage of this country," he alleged. Reverse gear According to Omar, the opposition intends to drag the country "into reverse gear," branding its leaders as a group of failed political actors "playing to the gallery of their paymaster" and engaging in economic sabotage. "The order of events outlined by the opposition characters is equally wrong. I think they are playing to the gallery of their paymaster and trying to build a crisis that should otherwise be a matter of national intervention," Omar said during a press briefing at the party's headquarters in Nairobi on Thursday. "When you want to set the country on reverse gear, it is an act of sabotage. If you look at the face of the opposition, it is the ugliest representation of past regimes and particularly failures of those past regimes," he told journalists. He defended the record fuel prices, insisting that Kenyans would have paid even more were it not for government intervention to avert a deeper crisis, citing the State's decision to stop the entry of questionable fuel into the local market. According to the East African Legislative Assembly lawmaker, the rise in fuel prices is a ripple effect of global energy market disruptions occasioned by the ongoing war in the Middle East. On concerns that the government was overcharging taxpayers compared to neighbouring countries through which fuel is transported, the MP said Kenya receives the commodity at a higher price than its "perceived" peers. At the same time, he maintained that Kenya has not faced any risk of fuel supply disruption, while accusing Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro of hoodwinking Kenyans.

Ruling party UDA accuses Uhuru of plotting to fund mass protests

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