President Ruto slammed for silence over cross-border abductions
National
By
Okumu Modachi
| Nov 12, 2025
President William Ruto has once again come under sharp criticism for his deafening silence over the cross-border abductions and now reported killings of Kenyans in the neighbouring Tanzania.
The Justice and Freedom Party (JFP) of Kenya has accused Ruto of presiding over foreign policy that negatively impacts the country as it "continue to lose its standing internationally," terming it as reckless.
In the recent past, there have been reports of killings and arbitrary arrests of Kenyans in Tanzania following the post-election protests that turned chaotic leading to loss of hundreds of lives and destruction of property as police clamp down on demonstrators.
However, speaking on Tuesday during the JFP National Delegates Conference in Nairobi, the party chairman Justus Juma said the authorities of the neigbouring country's are using Kenya as a bogeyman to justify the atrocities against Kenyan citizens.
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"Recently you've seen our neighbour now using Kenya as a bogeyman to escape civil rights and human rights accountability. Some are even proposing that they are freezing Kenyans in treaties in our neighbourhood," he said.
He added: "Tanzania is killing Kenyans and roasting them day and night. Even as they kill their own people, the accusation and the blame is always on Kenya."
This also comes at the backdrop of abduction of two Kenyan activists, Bob Njagi and Nicholas Oyoo, who were released on November 8, after 39 days of detention in Uganda.
Njagi and Oyoo were on October 1, abducted in Uganda by people believed to be the country's security personnel when they visited Kampala to stand in solidarity with their colleague, opposition politician Bobi Wine.
Juma expressed disappointment with Ruto's silence saying :"Yoweri Museveni of Uganda openly says that he kept Kenyans in a fridge. Yet we have a president who is not even responding. He doesn't even care. We are concerned about the serious reckless foreign policy."
President Museveni had admitted that the two had been in the custody of the Ugandan Military hours after their release, despite the Ugandan authorities earlier denying knowledge of Njagi and Oyoo's whereabouts.
The denial largely informed the country's court decision to dismiss a habeas corpus to have them released.
"In a live interview on Saturday evening, Museveni described the two men as "experts in riots" who had then been put "in the fridge for some days".
Juma further hit out at the Kenya Kwanza administration for abetting corruption that continue to deny citizens essential services, while also contributing to the ballooning national debt.
"Why were these loans taken? Why were high -interest terms approved? And what tangible benefits have they brought to our people? he questioned, even as the party pledged to invoke death penalty against "irresponsible" public officials found guilty of graft.
"Years of unresolved corruption, negligence and deliberate mismanagement have crippled our nation's prosperity. Everyday, Kenyans witness individuals who have looted billions living lavishly, as corruption cases collapse for 'lack of sufficient evidence'," he said.