Kasmuel McOure has fiercely defended his actions after coming under fire for failing to condemn the attack on fellow activist Morara Kebaso during a public event at Bomas of Kenya.
Kasmuel, who has been criticized for not addressing the violent assault, has turned the tables by directly blaming Kebaso for what happened.
The controversy erupted after a public participation event at Bomas on October 4, 2024, where Kasmuel’s focus on calling for the impeachment of Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, without acknowledging the mob attack on Kebaso, left many Kenyans disappointed prompting some to call him a sellout.
Instead of condemning the violence, Kasmuel launched straight into a political rallying cry.
“Gachagua must go! Ndio tumalize ukabila Kenya, ndio tumalize shareholders, ndio tumalize siasa ya kuchanganya watu, Gachagua must go!” Kasmuel declared during his speech, sidestepping the unfolding drama involving Kebaso.
In a self-recorded video posted on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday night, October 9, 2024, Kasmuel addressed the criticism, unapologetically stating, “I have seen people circulating a fake apology video that was cut from a video I made days ago claiming that that’s my apology for Bomas. I need to make this very clear, I am not sorry that I was at Bomas, I do not in any way regret speaking at Bomas and I do not owe anyone an apology.”
Didn’t witness Morara’s attack
Kasmuel emphasized that he was not present when the attack on Kebaso occurred but claimed that he would have spoken out if he had witnessed it.
“I was not at Bomas when Morara was attacked, if I had seen that attack I would have condemned it vehemently,” he said.
However, Kasmuel shifted much of the blame for the incident onto the broader public, particularly those who failed to attend the event, accusing them of enabling the attack on Morara.
“A lot of the people that have talked to me and asked me they have told me that they are wondering why I have not spoken about Morara’s attack. One, the attack on Morara was absolutely wrong. But who planned that attack? It’s you. I know you want to blame it on some goons but it’s you. You are the biggest enabler of the people who meted out violence on Morara,” he said.
He went on to criticize activists who voiced support for the event online but did not show up.
“If you are a young person, you are the one who sponsored that violence. If you are an old person, you are the one who sponsored that violence. Then you come and call me a traitor or a sellout, where were you? You all were typing and you all lied to each other and shared posters and said that you gonna go for public participation, where were you?” Kasmuel ranted.
No organic crowds
Further escalating the controversy, Kasmuel called out Morara Kebaso directly for being naive in thinking that the crowd at Bomas would support his message.
“This is where I would call out Morara and his team for example. One of the biggest lessons I learned is that there are no organic crowds in politics. Wakenya hamtaki kuskia hii, you think that you have organic crowds. How do you walk in a place in a crowd that you have not mobilized?” he questioned.
Kasmuel argued that political crowds must be organized and criticized Morara for not preparing adequately before addressing the crowd.
“You walked into the crowd and you had not made prior preparations for the crowd, you did not know who had mobilized it and you just like me believed that Kenyans of goodwill are the ones who had gone there,” he stated.
Kasmuel also took issue with accusations that he had sold out to political interests by failing to support Kebaso.
“I am addressing this directly to Morara because his team was one of the first people to say that I am a sellout and if I hear it from the team, unless you denounce what the team said, effectively you also endorse the message that I am a sellout,” Kasmuel charged.
He explained that his decision to focus solely on calling for Gachagua’s impeachment was based on listening to the sentiments of the crowd.
“Niliskiza ground nikauliza tunasema nini and I asked so many people. There is a lady who pointed me out akasema ‘ndo ule Gen Z mwingine hapo askue amekuja kutuharibia mkutano kusema vitu hatujakuja kuongelea hapa leo,’” Kasmuel recounted in the self-recorded video.
He added, “Then I listened and I asked what’s happening on the ground, I asked is Gachagua going and they said yes. Is Ruto going, they said usilete mambo ya Ruto hapa.”
As the public debate intensifies, Kasmuel’s unapologetic stance and his accusations against both Kebaso and the Kenyan public are likely to further divide opinion on the activist community’s approach to political issues.
