Mbobu murder: PLO Lumumba criticises Parliament for silence amid surge in killings

Constitutional lawyer PLO Lumumba. (Photo: Handout)

By Rachael Mutabasi
Thursday, September 18, 2025

PLO Lumumba warned that politicians with “Messiah complexes” cannot solve the country’s problems and stressed that coordinated citizen engagement is the key to accountability and meaningful change.

Renowned lawyer PLO Lumumba has delivered a scathing critique of the state of governance in Kenya, highlighting systemic failures, rising insecurity, and parliamentary inaction.

Speaking in an interview on Spice FM, Lumumba accused Parliament of remaining silent on urgent national crises and misusing public funds while failing in its constitutional oversight role.

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Lumumba cited the recent killing of lawyer Kyalo Mbobu as a stark example of leaders neglecting their duty to protect citizens, stressing that defending justice is both a civic and patriotic responsibility.

"What we enshrined in our Constitution, people died and were jailed for, so that we may speak out. Every government must be checked, and that is why I say that governments are instituted amongst men and women… they must be kept under constant interrogation. That is a constitutional right,” Lumumba said.

He added that dissent is a patriotic duty, invoking the words of Wole Soyinka: “The man dies in silence in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny. We cannot keep silent. We must speak out.”

"We must point out, because no leader is infallible. Every leader must be subjected to scrutiny," he added.

Lumumba faulted Parliament for remaining silent on urgent national matters, “We now live in a country where our Parliament is silent on all things except the CDF, which they want to use for purposes of pork barreling. They are silent when there are things that call for an emergency.”

He linked this silence to rising insecurity, citing the killing of lawyer Kyalo Mbobu.

“My good friend Kyalo was killed like a rat in the streets. And Parliament does not convene. People are attacked in River Road during daylight,” he lamented, questioning why elected leaders were not treating such incidents as a national crisis.

Lumumba criticised symbolic development projects, arguing that they do not address citizens’ immediate needs.

“This is not a time for pock barreling, where we run around the country and give something we call development. People want food, people want to go to school, people want real things, people want their lives to be changed,” he said, emphasising that development should focus on people and opportunities rather than infrastructure alone.

On the economy, he questioned Kenya’s sovereignty over key sectors.

“If it is in the taxi business, it’s Uber from San Francisco. In supermarkets, it’s Carrefour from France. If it is a motorbike delivery, it’s Glovo from Spain. Even though our bridges are built by foreign companies, we have been producing civil engineers since the 1960s. Where are they?” he posed.

Beyond governance and economic issues, Lumumba called for citizens to organise to demand accountability. He urged professionals, including teachers, doctors, lecturers and those in agriculture, as well as religious leaders from all denominations, to unite.

“The lecturers are now organised about welfare. The doctors are organised around their welfare. The teachers around their welfare… This is the time for all those forces of goodwill to come together and make demands of the politician.”