Garissa, Sept. 12 — A United Opposition rally in Garissa descended into violence on Saturday when gunfire struck a VIP vehicle carrying senior opposition figures, prompting former Attorney General Justin Muturi to brand the assault an attempted assassination.
Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka, Muturi’s Democratic Party, and former Defence Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa were among the opposition leaders present when chaos erupted at the gathering, with a vehicle in the convoy allegedly struck by bullets.
Muturi did not mince his words. “This is an attempted assassination!!!” he declared, warning the attack “risks balkanising the nation and creating fear” among Kenyans, and demanded that the Inspector General of Police launch a full investigation to identify, arrest and prosecute those responsible.
Kalonzo, breaking his silence on the incident, vowed the opposition would not be cowed. “No idea whose time has come was ever stopped by stones, batons, teargas or bullets,” he said, adding, “The idea of change cannot be teargassed into retreat, clubbed into submission, or battered into silence.” He closed with a rallying cry in Swahili: “Tutaendelea. Hatutarudi nyuma. Pamoja, tutakomboa Kenya!” (“We will continue. We will not go back. Together, we will liberate Kenya!”)
Kalonzo said the Wiper Patriotic Front would press on with its “Ukombozi wa Kenya” campaign despite the attack, insisting that force cannot solve Kenya’s real problems of unemployment and the rising cost of living.
The Garissa attack came the same day police fired teargas and, reportedly, live ammunition to disperse chaos at a separate UDA rally in Embu attended by Deputy President Kithure Kindiki, underscoring a day of mounting political tension and violence across the country as Kenya’s rival political camps intensify their positioning ahead of 2027.