United Opposition spokesperson Mukhisa Kituyi has accused President William Ruto of weakening Parliament and eroding institutional credibility.
He says Kenya faces widespread governance decline, citing failures in oversight and education.
While calling for stronger parliamentary independence, Kituyi argues broader reforms are needed, warning that even a strong legislature may struggle to restrain executive excesses without sustained public accountability.
Speaking on Tuesday in a Radio Generation interview, the spokesperson and head of secretariat for the United Opposition, said the country is facing “massive” institutional decay, particularly within Parliament and the education system.
“President Ruto has been very deliberate and systematic in muzzling the voices of institutions like Parliament,” he said, adding that lawmakers themselves also bear responsibility. “I didn’t say blame only Ruto. I blamed Ruto and I blame those parliamentarians.”
Kituyi argued that restoring parliamentary independence is essential to improving governance. “A revival of the independence and credibility of Parliament will be an important input in returning to sound management of public affairs,” he said.
He contrasted the current legislature with earlier multi-party parliaments, which he described as more independent and intellectually robust. “We had a cohort in Parliament with 14 PhDs, four professors, the intellectual capacity to prosecute public issues was very well embedded,” he said.
According to Kituyi, that era allowed for stronger scrutiny of government actions and closer collaboration with civil society. “We sat as a faculty to give informed opinion on the implications of legislation,” he said.
He warned that this oversight has since eroded, partly due to the weakening of civil society. “The erosion of the credibility and capacity of civil society was the beginning of the decline of oversight from outside institutions,” he said.
Kituyi said the consequences are now visible across sectors, including education. “The institutional decay is so massive, there were names of persons who have never been admitted to the university, but they are on the roll for graduation,” he claimed.
He described such incidents as evidence of a breakdown in credibility. “You are not even stealing money, you are stealing persons to be made graduates without an education,” he said.
On Parliament, he criticised the current leadership, describing it as subservient to the executive. “We have a speaker who is just a handmaid of the presidency, an agent of State House,” he said, adding that reform requires replacing current legislators. “Their replacement is a minimum requirement for making headway as a country.”
Despite the criticism, Kituyi acknowledged that a strong Parliament alone cannot fully restrain executive power. “A good Parliament can help expose the excesses but there are some things that a bad president can get to do even when you have a good parliament,” he said.
He pointed to Kenya’s foreign policy as an example, alleging controversial links with armed groups in Sudan.
Referring to the paramilitary force commonly known as the Janjaweed, he said: “Such is the genocidal terrorist organisation, that are friends of Ruto.”
Kituyi criticised what he described as support for such actors. “He doesn’t see the irony offering Kenyan passports, offering VIP treatment to these criminals,” he said.
He argued that Parliament lacks the power to effectively challenge such actions. “It does not give sufficient strength to parliamentary outrage to stop a president who is bent on this criminal engagement,” he said.
At the same time, the united opposition spokesperson noted the emergence of alternative accountability platforms. “We are seeing the rise of new prefects in alternative media and social media space,” he said, describing them as a new force holding leaders to account.
He said public frustration is increasingly shaping political discourse, with many Kenyans focusing on leadership change as a central issue. “If you carry out an opinion poll, the most important policy issue is one term,” he said.
However, he called for a broader reform agenda beyond political transitions. “We have to start building a maximalist agenda, how do we renew the national spirit and unlock the potential of Kenyans,” he said.
Kituyi emphasised that meaningful change will require both institutional reform and sustained public engagement, warning that without these, governance challenges will persist.