Senate Majority Leader Aaron Cheruiyot/FILE
Senate Majority Leader Aaron Cheruiyot has lashed out at legislators, accusing them of failing to ensure proper oversight of security agencies—a lapse he says has contributed to needless deaths.
Speaking passionately in Parliament on Wednesday, Cheruiyot argued that lawmakers have the power to steer the country away from the kind of tragedies that have become all too familiar.
He noted that if parliamentary committees had done their job of overseeing police conduct, many lives could have been spared.
“The motion we passed here after the June 25 protests had clear directives for our security committees,” Cheruiyot said.
“Arrest procedures were part and parcel of what we agreed on. If we had implemented those, the young people of Angata Barragoi and Albert Ojwang would not have been dragged from Homa Bay to Nairobi.”
The Kericho senator expressed frustration with what he described as MPs’ habit of complaining after the fact instead of taking decisive action.
“For how long will this House be a place of lamentation?” he asked. “We were not voted in to just whine and wring our hands. If you, as an MP, are just going to complain, what do you expect from the people you represent?”
Cheruiyot called on MPs to stop the cycle of empty statements and to push parliamentary security committees to take their oversight role seriously.
“Let’s stop this hypocrisy of giving speeches in Parliament and then going home,” he said.
“People are disappointed in us. We must lead the country in making the right decisions on how to handle protesters, on how to arrest people, and how to allow the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (Ipoa) to do its job without interference.”
The death of Albert Ojwang has struck a deep chord with Kenyans, intensifying calls for justice and accountability.
As investigations continue, Kenyans wait anxiously for answers in a case that has come to symbolise the urgent need for police reforms—and for Parliament to step up and do its job.