Muturi to state: Allow youth to express themselves freely

Public Service Cabinet Secretary Justin Muturi speaks during a press briefing on abductions at Serena hotel Nairobi, January 12, 2025.

Public Service Cabinet Secretary Justin Muturi has differed in opionion with a number of state officials and said Kenyan youth should be allowed to express their views freely without being intimidated.

Speaking during a press briefing on Sunday, Muturi said Kenya is a democratic country and everyone is free to articulate their issues without fear.

“The youth are part of the Kenyan society, we cannot just segregate them. If they have issues they want to raise with the government, let them raise and let us allow them to raise it,” he said.

“That is all what democracy is all about, we are a democratic country.”

Muturi said during their campaigns, the government promised Kenyans that they would be guaranteed freedom of speech.

“It is our cardinal duty as a government to ensure that everybody lives freely including saying what they think; including saying that they don’t like me. That’s an opinion,” he added.

In a bold statement delivered at the Serena hotel, Muturi strongly criticised the Kenya Kwanza government over the abductions, saying all indications were that the vices were going on with the blessings of the government.

He said young Kenyans have gone missing since the Gen Z-driven June 2023 protests and in some instances, ended up dead under unexplained circumstances.

The former AG said it was wrong for the government to claim that it's not involved in the abductions but on the other hand fail to explain who was bejind the abductions.

“The cardinal duty of the state and the government is to protect the lives and livelihood of its citizens and cannot claim to be unaware of such serious breaches of the rights of Kenyans to live free from wrongful confinement and the violation of their inalienable right to life,” he said.

Muturi said he particularly is concerned since his own son was abducted by unkown people when he was serving as the Attorney General but six months since his release by his abdcutors, no one has been charged.

“I have personally suffered as my son was abducted and disappeared, I was not sure whether he was alive or dead, making us anxious and leaving me, my wife and my family in turmoil,” he said.

“I was unable to trace my son despite making several requests and demands to all levels of the security apparatus.”

Muturi explained that despite his attempts to reach out to senior security figures to help him get his son, all he got was a cold response from those mandated to issue answers.

The abductions, he noted, are happening despite President William Ruto having vowed to ensure disappearances and extra-judicial killings don't recur.

“One of the things we had accused the past regimes was the existence of disappearances and extra-judicial killings and we vowed that we would never, under our watch, condone or allow it anymore,” the CS said.

He further told security officers to come clear on the number of youths who have been released and the number of those still missing.

“Kenyans want to know how many of our youth have been taken since the abductions started, how many have been released, how many are still being held and where it is they are being held,” Muturi said.

He asked the President to take a decisive action on the matter as he has always assured Kenyans.

The CS said if left unchecked, abductions have the potential to plunge the country into chaos and anarchy.

“I have taken this unusual step so that the matter can be debated honestly and openly in the country with a view to finding a lasting solution to this issue which if left unchecked.”