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It was a serene and calm atmosphere as we stepped into Okiya Omtatah’s spacious, L-shaped office, located in the prestigious Upper Hill district of Nairobi. From the fifth-floor windows, we could see the congested streets of the city below, while inside, a different kind of stillness prevailed. My cameraperson and I were led to a modest waiting area, a corner of the office-cum-hall where blue chairs were stacked together in a neat line.
In the unseen part of the office, the deep, resonant voice of the Busia Senator could be heard clearly, filling the room with its commanding tone. Omtatah is no ordinary politician; he is a formidable activist who has challenged successive regimes in Kenya’s turbulent political landscape. We waited for over two hours before we were finally ushered to his office corner to meet him. His desk, like the rest of the office, was unassuming, with only books and files piled neatly. The most conspicuous feature was a television screen the size of a pool table, displaying his previous interviews on loop.
“Welcome to my office,” he greeted us as we shook hands, diving straight into setting up our equipment. I couldn’t help but ask why his office lacked the grandeur one might expect of a senator’s space. He giggled then replied, “I hold meetings with many visitors, including Gen Zs, so I haven’t divided it. It’s more cost-effective than renting halls or conference rooms in town,” he explained.
Omtatah wasted no time addressing Kenya’s current political climate. He lauded the Kenyan youth for demanding accountability and good governance from the Ruto-led administration, saying that the President is the author of his own misfortune. He said President Ruto lied his way to power, and gave false hope to Kenyans, especially the youth. “Many people voted for him in the hope that he was going to deliver, like a man telling you when you put me in office I’ll cut a piece of the moon and hang it in your village so that you don’t have any darkness in any night. But he’s been unable to hang the piece of the moon,” he said.
He said that besides the false promises, the young people have also interrogated and realised that there are a lot of things going wrong in the country with regards to governance, which have added to the embers of anger against the Kenya Kwanza administration. “There is a lot of theft of public resources, and that’s why the country is basically anaemic because somebody is sucking blood out of the economy,” he said. He thus said that the youth led demonstrations in the country are against bad governance style not necessarily about power.
However, the senator said that Ruto still has grace, and can change his fortunes if he wants to. “If Ruto is serious about saving this country, he can turn around, get rid of Rutoism, meet his Damascus and rule this country according to the law,” he said. However, the activist said that would mean him making hard decisions, including “jailing his friends who are corrupt”. Even so, Omtatah said the President is lacking the capacity to do all that, and “so inevitably he might just have to be forced to relinquish power”.
He said the President might be having some temporary moments of calm in office, which came after he co-opted Raila and his troops into the government, but that will not last long.
“People want a new way of doing things. They may retreat now but they are going to come back,” he said.
Omtatah accused the President of his disregard for the rule of law. He particularly picked issue with Ruto’s way of employing people into government entities.
“Go on any board of a state corporation. They are being manned by his friends who have been failures in life, who are looting and can’t allow managing directors to do their work,” he said,
He added that Ruto has time and again refused to obey the court orders to recruit competitively.
He also blamed Raila Odinga for teaming up with Ruto when the masses rejected him through nationwide protests, calling him an opportunist and selfish.
“He only fights governments when he is not part of them, but once he becomes part of a government he becomes the high priest of some of the excesses that the government is being accused of,” Omtatah said.
He termed his current dalliance with Ruto as unfortunate for Odinga’s reputation. “Raila has contributed a lot in the development of this country irrespective of the motive. So it is very sad when you see him getting to a stage whereby he is going to have a very uncelebrated exit, which I don’t think he deserves,” he said. He noted that given his age, Raila should have focused on becoming a statesman and avoided actions that could damage his legacy.
He stated that the Ruto administration is reluctant to fully implement the constitution, as demanded by Kenyans, because doing so would throw the regime off balance. “They don’t want to implement it because there are skeletons that will begin walking from the closets if they implement that Katiba,” he said. He accused the government of using its power to delay the implementation of the 2010 constitution to keep it in “stillbirth”. He further said that the numerous trials to amend the constitution, including the Building Bridges Initiatives (BBI) and the National Dialogue Committee (NADCO) are “attempts to kill the constitution- but they will not succeed”.
A Lifelong Battle
Omtatah’s activism dates back to 1987, and he has paid a steep price for his relentless pursuit of justice. “I don’t have ten teeth in my mouth- they were knocked out,” he said. “My skull was broken in two places, and I was fixed and I have been locked up 28 times and charged in court 28 times but I have won all the cases,” he said.
He said that there is no police station in Nairobi that he has not been locked up in as a result of his activism. Furthermore, the repercussions of his advocacy have extended to his family, necessitating unconventional measures to safeguard his children. “I had to conceal the identity of my kids when they were going through school so that I cannot be associated with them,” he revealed. During that period, only his wife visited them because he didn’t want the children to be victimised for his deeds.
Even after being elected as a senator, he said trouble has still been by his side. He said suspicious things have been happening around him, including the car accident in which he was involved in with a trailer along Kisumu-Busia highway in February this year, his attack by goons in Busia town in March, and the vandalism and attacks on his house and office in Busia. As a result of the attacks, he said he was forced to beef up his security “and live like a prisoner.” He said the truck that nearly killed him is owned by a nominated MP who is “a well-connected member of the government”. In additioin, he said the police have been too lazy to investigate the incident to date.
He also revealed that there have been attempts to bribe him into abandoning his fight against the government.
“I was offered two hundred million shillings to compromise my position, but I told them, ‘Keep your money; I keep my country,’” Okiya Omtatah .
This was when he sued the government for rolling out the housing levy. He did not reveal who tried to bribe him but he said it was an NGO for consumers.
He said that even now, someone is trying to bribe him to drop a case against building a second berth at the sea port of Mombasa, which he said is against the port master plan. The plan, he said, states that a second berth should be built in Dongo Kundu or Lamu but not in Mombasa since Mombasa is congested. However, he said, “some well connected fellows have been able to be given a license contrary to the port master plan”. The dock workers who approached him to take up the matter have dropped their case and he has remained alone to fight these well-connected fellows. “There was 50 million shillings on the table but they said I can state my price because the berth issue involves about six billion,” he said. I asked him who these fellows are and he responded saying, “One is now a cabinet minister if you can do one plus one you can get who it is,” he said. He said the dock workers withdrew from the case after the minister prevailed upon them.
Omtatah said that he draws his inspiration to fight for the rights of others from his grandfather, who always told him that “to make the world a better place you don’t need to do big things but as simple things as picking a thorn when you are walking on the road even if you are wearing shoes. If you throw that thorn away, you will have made the world better and safer for those who don’t wear shoes,” he said.
I asked him if the rumoured allegations that he is a dog for hire are true and he dismissed them as ‘a tired debate’. “If I have been hired to do something bad, let them show, but if I was hired to do something good, even a teacher is hired to teach,” he offered, adding that he has always financed his activism through his businesses. “I run a very successful business in transport using huge trucks; I pay my taxes and tithes,” he said.
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