Martha Karua Calls For Ruto’s Resignation Amidst Growing Public Outcry

People’s Liberation Party (PLP) leader Martha Karua is urging President William Ruto and his entire administration to resign, aligning with the surging “Ruto must go” calls from Kenyans on social media and through street protests.

This demand comes amidst widespread frustration from citizens who accuse Ruto’s leadership of being marked by corruption, neglect of ordinary Kenyans’ needs, a skyrocketing cost of living, police brutality, extrajudicial killings, and the arbitrary arrest of government critics.

On Friday, President Ruto brushed off the chants and the public’s labeling of him as a one-term head of state. “If it is a question of terms, the Constitution has already sorted out and settled the issue of term limits. You can either be one or two-term… You cannot have more than that. So what is this craze about terms?” Ruto questioned. “If it is Ruto must go, then tell me how you want me to go. What do you mean by Ruto must go? How do I go? Because we have a constitution in place.”

In response, Karua challenged Ruto to “respect the voice of the people” by resigning. She warned that if he fails to do so, Kenyans have the power to remove him even before his term concludes.

“Take the same route you took to get where you are. You could resign; if you truly respected the voice of the people, you would have resigned by now, with your entire government, and go home,” the former justice minister told Spice FM in a Tuesday interview.

Karua added, “But because you won’t, whether in 2027, or earlier, the people will remove you. You may continue to kill as you are killing now, but you cannot kill everyone,” referencing the increasing number of police killings of anti-government protesters.

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Echoes of Dictatorship

Calling Ruto an imitator of Idi Amin Dada, the brutal Ugandan military dictator overthrown in 1979, Karua asserted that Ruto will ultimately not withstand what she terms “the will of the people.”

“History has shown us tyrants and dictators who ruled through terror and none of them have ever survived the will of the people,” she stated. “Not even Idi Amin, whom Ruto seems to be imitating. Al Bashir had a very serious army but he still went down.”

In the PLP leader’s view, “power resides with the people,” and Kenyans have the right to “fire” Ruto for what she describes as the current administration’s overthrow of the Constitution.