Miguna backs Gen Z, dismisses Gachagua-led opposition and Ruto’s regime as a joke

Lawyer Miguna Miguna has dismissed the opposition led by former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua as a “joke”, arguing that the group lacks the ideological will to reform Kenya’s structurally flawed state.

In an interview with Citizen TV on Sunday, Miguna noted that the current political realignment is driven more by personal grievances than a genuine push for systemic transformation.

He accused both the opposition and the government of ignoring constitutional principles, looting public resources and enriching themselves dishonestly.

“The so-called opposition is a joke, the same way that Ruto is a joke.”

“Many of these people do not care about adhering to the Bill of Rights or implementing it. They do not care about defying court orders. They do not care about looting. If you audit their wealth, they would not be able to explain how, with their meagre salaries, they became billionaires in dollar terms.”

The exiled lawyer singled out Gachagua as unfit to drive change, recalling their days together at the University of Nairobi.

“I was at the university with Gachagua in 1987, even though he was ahead of me by two years. He does not represent transformation. He cannot transform anything,” he said.

He also took a swipe at President William Ruto, accusing him of being a long-time supporter of authoritarianism.

“William Ruto supported Daniel arap Moi’s one-party state in 1987 when many of us were campaigning against it. He supported that throughout his life, and he’s still supporting that. That’s why he’s with Fred Matiang’i,” he said.

He dismissed Ruto’s alliance with the former Interior Cabinet Secretary as evidence of political continuity, not change.

“There is absolutely nothing that they can do to change the political and structural environment I’m talking about,” he said.

“Gachagua’s only grievance is that William Ruto kicked him out of government, not because the system is bad.”

Miguna described Kenya as a structurally, institutionally, and culturally defective state, arguing that the country has failed to shake off its colonial foundations and urgently needs a complete overhaul.

He said his political awakening in 1987 was shaped by the belief that Kenya operates as a neo-colonial system, deliberately designed to exploit citizens rather than serve them.

“In 1987, when I became politically active, I always believed that Kenya is a structurally defective, institutionally defective, culturally defective state, a neo-colonial state that needs to be restructured by first being overhauled, then transformed,” he said.

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• Miguna Miguna
• Miguna backs Gen Z
• dismisses Gachagua-led opposition and Ruto’s regime as a joke

He maintained that key state institutions such as the police have continued to reflect the oppressive architecture of the colonial regime.

“When you see the police abusing citizens, that’s exactly what they were supposed to do when this colonial experiment was established. The Kenyan state was not created to respect Kenyans with dignity. It was created to extract resources, exploit labour, and keep Kenyans as slaves,” he added.

He argued that successive governments since independence have not made any genuine effort to dismantle the oppressive state structure, insisting that meaningful change can only begin with a radical systemic reset.

“We’ve never been able to transform that state. My idea is that we need to overhaul the existing rotten structure before we can transform it. And any of these characters you are mentioning cannot do that,” Miguna said.

The lawyer, however, expressed full support for the youth-led protests and political awakening driven by Gen Z, describing them as the true agents of change.

“They’re doing a marvellous historical job. You see, the youth is the mortar of change, historically. Whether you go to the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution, the Cuban Revolution, or the most recent Basoga Revolution led by Captain Tury, the youth is the bulwark of that movement that would eventually transform this system I’m talking about,” he said.

He emphasised that young people bear the brunt of the country’s systemic failures, including unemployment, homelessness and repression.

“They are the ones who are most repressed and oppressed, the most exploited, the most unemployed, the most homeless. So they feel the pain of the independence betrayal more than any other group. All that needs to be done is for Kenyans of goodwill to support them, so they can accomplish what our parents were unable to do, and what our generation largely failed to do,” he noted.

While lauding their efforts, Miguna stressed the need for ideological clarity and direction.

“I support what they are doing fully, but it has to be ideologically driven. Because ideology is the software of politics. If you don’t have ideology, you cannot lead any transformative change, because you don’t have the software on which to do that,” he said.