- It is the second time McOure is explaining himself over the meeting after first doing so Thursday last week after photos of him and Osoro went viral.
- The activist is a fierce Kenya Kwanza critic and was at the frontline during the anti-tax protests to a point of being presumed the group's de facto leader.
Image: SCREENGRAB
Youthful rights activist Kasmuel McOure now says it’s regrettable that he agreed for a photo opportunity with South Mugirango MP Silvanus Osoro.
In a video message posted on his X account Monday evening, McOure who shot to popularity at the height of Gen Z-led anti-government protests in June and part of July says the brief encounter with the MP Wednesday last week has generated a buzz.
He said speculation is rife in his quarters that he might have betrayed their course and was now working with the Kenya Kwanza administration, a false assumption, he says.
“A lot of people have messaged me to clarify whether I’m still with the people or I have joined government,” he said.
McOure said inasmuch as he has received numerous offers to work with the government since the protest days, he has remained true to his principles of never working with a government he says does not respect human rights.
He in effect said he regrets having agreed to be in a photo with an MP who works for that very government.
“That photo was taken by a lady legislator who was with Osoro, I was going to a members’ club that I go to often and that’s when I met him for the first time…and I told him how rogue they run the government,” he said.
“That’s what that was about, I have not been bought. For the people who are asking that I have gone silent, it’s not that I have gone silent; it’s just that now the work that we are doing is not on a public scale."
It is the second time McOure is explaining himself over the meeting after first doing so Thursday last week after photos of him and Osoro went viral.
The young activist is a fierce Kenya Kwanza critic and was at the frontline during the anti-tax protests to the point of being presumed the de facto leader of the ‘faceless and tribeless’ Gen Z.
The assumption was lend credence by his appearances in countless local and international media interviews advancing the ideologies behind Gen Zs’ civil disobedience.
McOure says the fact that he no longer appears in media interviews anymore does not mean he has joined the same government he’s been so bluntly critical of.
“The work that I’m doing is very community-based, and we are working with a coalition of leaders who were on the streets. I have nothing to do with that man [Osoro]. It’s highly regrettable because even upon reflection I have just remembered how badly he mocked the dead during the height of our protests, and I see how that would have been in bad taste,” he said.
“I’m very sorry. I have been making these apologies in the communities that I work with and just to clarify, I’m not interested in working with this Kenya Kwanza government."
Osoro is the Majority Chief Whip in the National Assembly and actively whipped MPs to vote in favour of the impugned Finance Bill, 2024, even as thousands of enraged protesters cause mayhem on the streets calling for the total rejection of the piece of legislation.
Activities of that Tuesday, June 25, 2024, will remain etched in the annals of Kenya’s history as one of the violent civil unrests as several protesters were shot dead outside Parliament as MPs inside passed the Bill.
The angry lot breached the security barricade, torched a police truck, and set a section of Parliament on fire after vandalising furniture in a public show of outrage at what the MPs had done.
The anger cascaded to counties where properties of MPs known to have voted for the Bill were also looted, vandalised and some set ablaze.
The Kenya Kwanza government sought to raise an extra Sh346 billion through the Finance Bill, 2024, to help fund its Sh3.92 trillion 2024-25 national budget.