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Omtatah: Protests are Gen Z-led but there are many sympathisers

“When you go to Parliament there’s damage to areas where I know the protesters never reached."

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by EMMANUEL WANJALA

News17 July 2024 - 13:19

In Summary


  • Omatatah said his office is located at a vantage point which gave him leverage in documenting the events of the deadly Occupy Parliament protests.
  • In his opinion, Omtatah believes that there were sympathisers who were not part of the protesters but acted in their interest.
Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah.

Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah has claimed that young Kenyans may have become the face of the country's reform agenda, but many people even within the government support their revolution.

Speaking during a town hall dialogue on Monday organised by Africa Uncensored, the legislator alleged that those are sympathetic to Gen Z and what they are fighting for.

Omtatah said during the second Occupy Parliament protests on June 25 when demonstrators overran security and vandalised a section of the Senate, so much happened that lends credence to his theory.

“And I don’t know if you know that on that day there was no arrest during the demo, not a single person was arrested. That’s why you see that this struggle here is a Gen Z-led but it has got very many sympathisers. People are beginning to understand that this country can be better managed,” he said.

Omatatah said his office is located at a vantage point which gave him leverage in documenting the events of the deadly Occupy Parliament protests.

“My office is on the seventh floor of Bunge Tower so I had a bird’s eye view of what was going on,” he said.

According to the senator, security officers in Parliament precincts were enough to repel the protesters.

“First of all, I believe that if the Kenya Police wanted to prevent anybody from getting into Parliament, there’s no force that could overpower the police,” he said.

“From my side, initially we had said that we go and meet the protesters and have them address us, some of us volunteered but the security people could not allow us to do that, and we were stopped.”

Tuesday, June 25, witnessed perhaps the bloodiest anti-Finance Bill protests on record where several protesters were shot outside Parliament just before the building was stormed and vandalised and food in the cafeteria was eaten.

In his opinion, Omtatah believes that there were sympathisers who were not part of the protesters but acted in their interest.

“When you go to Parliament there’s damage to areas where I know the protesters never reached. So the question is who was damaging these things?” he posed.

“The damage was engineered by somebody else…even the police lorry, why was it allowed to burn to ashes? Many vehicles with water could have put it out. How do you burn a mahogany table to ashes within minutes?”

Omtatah avers that most of the damage especially within Parliament was orchestrated by someone or a group of people sympathetic to the Gen Z revolt.  

He said after a section of protesters gained entry into Parliament, all they did was take selfies and eat food in the senate cafeteria but no violence was directed at Members of Parliament.

It was the same day MPs defied widespread calls for them to shoot down the Finance Bill, 2024 and 195 of the members voted to give it a clean bill of health.

“People were mocked yes, but nobody was hit,” Omtatah said.

“The story in Parliament has not been told, why is it that the tables were shown broken and not the plates which were used for eating the food? After the place had been bridged, you’ll realise that there was no violence from the protesters. You saw the physically challenged Member, the bishop, he was not harassed and even many MPs ran into these people and nobody was hit.” 

According to the Parliamentary Service Commission, it will cost approximately Sh150 million to repair the damage caused in Parliament on that day.


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