President William Ruto said on Sunday that going forward he will ”protect the nation” saying he had already given everybody a chance to air their views.
The president who spoke in Bomet County after attending a church service, told the Generation Zoomers(Gen Z) that ”enough is enough”.
The President said he had already given a lot of consensions as demanded by the protesters including rejecting the Finance Bill, 2024, yet protests continue.
“I dropped the Finance Bill, I called them to come to the table and talk to me, they refused and asked me to go to X, I went there but they ran away,” Ruto said.
“I have called them for talks but they have refused saying they are faceless and formless.”
The President had asked the young people to nominate 50 representatives to sit in the multi-sectoral forum that was to begin last Monday.
The six-day forum did not begin as planned after various sectors allegedly failed to submit names of nominees.
The dialogue was to find solutions to the issues raised by the protesters and many others beleaguering the country.
The president fired a warning to the Gen Zs that going forward, it is not going to be business as usual.
“I have told them, my friends, It must now come to an end, I have given a chance to everybody to say whatever they want, it can’t continue like this, the country is more important than any group of people, we must stand together as a nation and protect our nation,” he said.
“Going forward we will protect the nation, we will protect lives, we will protect property, stop the looters, stop the killers, stop mayhem because Kenya is a democracy and we want a stable nation,” he said.
The president said that the protesters and their leaders have failed to tell the country their end game after the destruction of property and death of lives.
“I want to promise you that it is going to stop, enough is enough,” the president told the public outside the church.
This is the president’s most tough warning to the protesters since the demonstrations started in June.
The warning also comes days after President Ruto picked some of the Cabinet members including reinstating Kithure Kindiki as Interio CS.
He also made a raft of changes in the police command after a major reorganisation with protesters saying they would be in the streets this week.