In the annals of Kenya’s constitutional history, a grave and insidious travesty has unfolded, one that strikes at the very core of the democratic principles enshrined in the 2010 Constitution – a document born of the Kenyan people’s fervent aspiration for justice, equity, and the rule of law. The esteemed constitutional lawyer Willis Otieno, has brought to light a matter of paramount significance: the inviolable provision of Article 136(2)(a) of the Constitution, which mandates that the general election be held on the second Tuesday of August in the fifth year of a presidential term.
This sacrosanct dictate, meticulously crafted to ensure the regularity and predictability of democratic transitions, was adhered to during the first term of the nefarious Uhuru Kenyatta, whose presidency commenced in 2013, with elections duly conducted on the second Tuesday of August 2017. However, what followed was a series of calculated and malevolent machinations that reveal the depths of moral bankruptcy to which Kenya’s political elite have descended, exposing a cabal of reprobates united in their contempt for the Constitution and the Kenyan people.
Constitutional lawyer Willis Otieno who first raised the discrepancy, initially invisible to the naked eye
Uhuru Kenyatta, a despot of unparalleled avarice and cunning, orchestrated a sinister plot to extend his illegitimate reign beyond the constitutional limit. Under the pretext of the COVID-19 pandemic – a global crisis that he exploited with ruthless opportunism – Kenyatta imposed draconian lockdowns and curfews, weaponizing public health measures to subjugate the Kenyan populace. These oppressive edicts were not borne of necessity but of a depraved intent to render the citizenry docile, stripping them of their capacity to challenge his tyrannical rule. By these means, this vile tyrant, driven by an insatiable lust for power and an unquenchable thirst for ill-gotten wealth, extended his presidency by an additional year, from 2021 to 2022, in flagrant violation of the Constitution. During this stolen year, Kenyatta plundered the nation’s coffers with reckless abandon, enriching himself and his coterie of sycophants while the Kenyan people languished under the weight of economic hardship and political repression.
To cloak his heinous agenda in a veneer of legitimacy, Kenyatta enlisted the deplorable Okiya Omtatah, a charlatan masquerading as a public interest activist, whose moral bankruptcy is matched only by his duplicity. Omtatah, a puppet of the state and a willing instrument of Kenyatta’s machinations, lodged a fraudulent constitutional petition – Petition 368 of 2018 – before the equally contemptible Justice Weldon Korir. In this sham petition, Omtatah, with brazen audacity, sought to shift the election date to the third Tuesday of August, in direct contravention of the Constitution’s unambiguous stipulation of the second Tuesday. This petition was not a genuine pursuit of justice but a theatrical ruse, meticulously designed to pacify the masses with judicial sideshows while Kenyatta tightened his stranglehold on power. Omtatah’s complicity in this scheme marks him as a traitor to the Kenyan people, a mercenary whose feigned activism is but a mask for his servitude to the highest bidder.
Judicial mercenary: Activist Okiya Omtatah accused of serving establishment interests at the expense of constitutionalism and rule of law
Justice Weldon Korir, a judicial reprobate whose name shall forever be synonymous with infamy, further compounded this abomination through his ruling on Omtatah’s petition. In a display of judicial malfeasance that defies comprehension, Korir proclaimed that elected officials, including the president, are entitled to a five-year term, a bald-faced lie, as no such explicit provision exists within the Constitution. Article 136(1) establishes the office of the president, while Article 136(2)(a) clearly delineates the timing of elections, yet nowhere does the Constitution prescribe a fixed five-year term that overrides the election date mandate.
Korir’s mendacity, a stain upon the judiciary’s honor, served to legitimize Kenyatta’s unconstitutional extension, effectively granting the rapacious dictator an additional year to pillage the nation’s resources. The dismissal of Omtatah’s petition was but a smokescreen, a calculated maneuver to entrench the fallacious narrative that elections were rightfully deferred to 2022 rather than 2021, in direct contravention of constitutional imperatives. Korir’s ruling was not merely an error of law; it was a deliberate act of sabotage, a betrayal of the judicial oath, and a desecration of the Constitution he swore to uphold.
The unconstitutional ruling dispensed by High Court Judge Weldon Korir declaring that political office holders shall serve for five (5) years
The complicity of the Kenyan judiciary in this egregious assault on democracy is nothing short of scandalous. The silence of institutions such as the Kenya Judiciary, under the stewardship of the ignominious Chief Justice Martha Koome, and her predecessors – the equally odious David Maraga and Willy Mutunga – speaks volumes of their irredeemable corruption. These custodians of justice, entrusted with the sacred duty of safeguarding the Constitution, stood idly by as this monumental case unfolded, their deafening silence a testament to their complicity in Kenyatta’s tyranny. The absence of condemnation from the Law Society of Kenya, a body ostensibly dedicated to the advancement of legal ethics, further underscores the pervasive rot within the legal fraternity.
Prominent advocates such as Ahmednasir Abdillahi, Nelson Havi, and Donald Kipkorir, whose voices should have thundered in defense of the Constitution, remained conspicuously mute, their silence reeking of something sinister. Such matters, which bear upon the very soul of the nation, transcend partisan loyalties and demand adjudication in the interest of posterity, yet the judiciary’s failure to act reveals the extent of Kenyatta’s malevolent influence over the levers of justice.
Lawyers Ahmednasir Abdillahi, Nelson Havi and Donald Kipkorir’s silence over a matter of such grave consequence leaves a lot to be desired
Into this fray emerges Raila Odinga, a relic of a bygone era whose moral decrepitude renders him a pariah in the eyes of justice. Once a self-proclaimed reformist, Odinga has long since abandoned any pretense of principle, devolving into a government lackey whose sole purpose is to perpetuate the tyrannical regime of William Ruto, another despot whose name is synonymous with perfidy and corruption. Odinga’s opposition to the election date petition, as highlighted in the article published on May 24, 2025, in The East African, is a shameless attempt to entrench Ruto’s dictatorship for an additional year, a betrayal that underscores his status as a traitor to the Kenyan people. Odinga’s storied history of capitulation – from the ignominious handshake with the barbarous dictator Daniel Arap Moi in 1998, which undermined the opposition’s struggle against Moi’s oppressive regime, to the opportunistic “nusu mkate” coalition with Mwai Kibaki in 2008, which diluted the push for systemic reforms, to his disgraceful alliance with the ICC-indicted criminals Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto in 2018 – marks him as a foreign agent dedicated to the sabotage of Kenya’s progress. Odinga, a spent force bereft of moral authority, has forfeited any right to speak on matters of constitutional import, his degenerate pronouncements devoid of substance, logic, or merit.
No sense of occassion: Even when his opinion is not required or necessary, Raila Odinga still see’s it fit to spew his unsolicited and unqualified opinions
Odinga’s fall from grace is a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions, a man who once galvanized the masses with promises of reform now reduced to a caricature of his former self. His abandonment of opposition politics since 1997 has left a void in Kenya’s democratic landscape, allowing successive regimes to entrench their stranglehold on power. In his own backyard of Luo Nyanza, dissent is gathering momentum, as the people, long disillusioned by his betrayals, begin to reject his leadership. The mainstream media must cease to provide a platform for Odinga’s repugnant rhetoric, which serves only to undermine the spirit of the 2010 Constitution and the decades-long struggle for democracy in Kenya. His opinions, devoid of cadence and steeped in hypocrisy, are an affront to the Kenyan people, who deserve leaders of integrity and vision.
CONMAN: After spending decades clamoring for a new constitutional dispensation, Raila Odinga has endeavored to undermine the very document he campaigned for in 2010
The broader context of this constitutional crisis cannot be divorced from the historical struggles that birthed the 2010 Constitution. For decades, Kenyans clamored for a new constitutional order, one that would dismantle the autocratic structures of the past and usher in an era of democratic governance. The 2010 Constitution was the culmination of this struggle, a beacon of hope that promised to safeguard the rights of the people and ensure the regularity of democratic processes. Yet, the very individuals who championed its adoption – Odinga, Kenyatta, and their ilk – have spent the past 15 years undermining its provisions, betraying the trust of the Kenyan people for personal gain. This pattern of betrayal is not new; it is a continuation of a legacy of political opportunism that has plagued Kenya since independence, from the repressive regimes of Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel Arap Moi to the kleptocratic administrations of Mwai Kibaki and Uhuru Kenyatta.
The silence of civil society and the media during this crisis is equally damning. At a time when the nation’s democratic foundations were under assault, the absence of robust commentary from leading media houses and civil society organizations was a betrayal of their mandate to hold power to account. The lack of public discourse on the election date petition allowed Kenyatta’s machinations to proceed unchallenged, emboldening him to further entrench his authoritarian rule. This failure of oversight underscores the urgent need for a reinvigorated civil society, one that is unafraid to confront the excesses of the political class and demand accountability.
COVID SCAM: The entire lockdown and curfew was engineered to procure one extra year in office for Uhuru Kenyatta
This odious cadre of political malefactors – Uhuru Kenyatta, Raila Odinga, William Ruto, Daniel Arap Moi, Okiya Omtatah, and Justice Weldon Korir – stand as enemies of the state, their actions a vile affront to the aspirations of a nation yearning for justice and a new dispensation. Kenyatta, a rapacious tyrant whose greed knows no bounds, plundered the nation while hiding behind the façade of a public health crisis. Odinga, a traitor whose betrayal of the opposition has crippled Kenya’s democratic progress, now serves as a lapdog for Ruto’s regime. Ruto, a despot whose corruption and brutality rival that of his predecessors, continues to perpetuate a cycle of oppression. Moi, a dictator whose 24-year reign was marked by repression and economic stagnation, set the stage for the impunity that defines Kenya’s political landscape. Omtatah, a fraudulent activist whose petitions are but tools of the state, has betrayed the cause of justice for personal gain. And Korir, a judicial charlatan whose ruling mocked the Constitution, has desecrated the bench he occupies.
Their legacy is one of plunder, oppression, and betrayal, a dark chapter in Kenya’s history that demands the unequivocal condemnation of all who cherish the rule of law. The Kenyan people, who have endured decades of tyranny and misrule, deserve better. They deserve leaders who uphold the Constitution, who prioritize the public good over personal enrichment, and who are committed to the principles of democracy and justice. The struggle for a new dispensation continues, and it is incumbent upon all Kenyans of conscience to rise up, reject these enemies of the state, and reclaim the promise of the 2010 Constitution.
