Northern region MPs accuse President Ruto of ignoring region in State of the Nation Address

A section of North Eastern Members of Parliament has accused President William Ruto of showing deliberate neglect toward their region after his State of the Nation Address on Thursday, November 20, 2025, failed to present any concrete plans for Northern Kenya.

In a joint statement, the MPs, led by Wajir North MP Ibrahim Saney alongside Fafi MP Farah Yakub Salah, Wajir South MP Adow Aden Mohamed and Wajir East MP Mahammed Aden Daudi, said the speech confirmed that their communities remain marginalised and excluded from the government’s development priorities.

Wajir North MP Ibrahim Abdi Saney voiced strong criticism, saying the President’s speech did not reflect the realities facing communities in the north.

“We don’t believe in whatever is being said. The President deliberately ignored Northern Kenya,” Ibrahim said. “He is talking about agriculture, farming that has not been seriously captured. We, as MPs from Northern Kenya, ours is to protest that we are ignored, abandoned, and marginalised. We are not happy with the address of the President in its entirety.”

He said that although the President talked about economic growth, rising investor confidence, and Kenya being ranked the sixth-largest economy in Africa, he failed to address the real issue affecting ordinary citizens. He questioned whether Kenyans actually have money in their pockets, insisting that this is what people want answered.

Fafi MP Farah, who became a national figure in early 2024 after proposing a motion to extend the presidential term limit, echoed Ibrahim's sentiments.

“Northern Kenya was really missing out on the achievements the President has mentioned,” he said. “He talked of several roads, dualing of highways, major infrastructure, and dams — none was from Northern Kenya. Even the livestock figures he gave are not true.”

The MPs said they left the chamber because the President’s speech failed to reflect the realities facing their communities.

"We left while he was speaking in protest because we feel we have been left out in the presidential speech and the government's achievements. So we are telling the president to go back to the drawing board. Northern Kenya is really missing out on this," they said.

The group linked their frustrations to the legacy of Sessional Paper No. 10 of 1965, saying the development blueprint entrenched the practice of prioritising high-potential areas with good rainfall while sidelining arid northern regions. They argued that this mindset still guides public spending today.

Wajir South MP Adow noted that their region lacks even basic road infrastructure, relying on cattle tracks that get cut off whenever it rains.

They criticised the narrow focus on crop farming, such as coffee and sugarcane, saying livestock, which is the backbone of the northern economy, was barely addressed. The leaders said pastoral families had once again been overlooked and that nothing new had been proposed to strengthen the sector.

The group said Northern Kenya has been left out for decades and warned that continued exclusion fuels feelings of alienation. Some MPs went as far as questioning whether the region is treated as an equal part of Kenya.

The legislators said the concerns they were raising were grounded in the Constitution and questioned why people from Northern Kenya continued to face mistreatment despite being full citizens.

They noted that many residents in the region had placed great hope in the fifth president, but that confidence was now slipping away.

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