A section of United Democratic Alliance MPs from the Mount Kenya region has issued a blunt ultimatum to party Secretary General Hassan Omar: resign within 48 hours, or face a formal petition to President William Ruto to have him removed from office.
The lawmakers, led by Thika Town MP Alice Ng’ang’a and Kiambaa MP John Njuguna Kawanjiku, addressed the press on Wednesday, May 27, making clear they have no appetite for apologies or explanations. Their target is Omar’s recent remarks on the Mount Kenya region — comments they describe as inflammatory and amounting to ethnic profiling.
“As leaders, we demand the immediate and unconditional resignation of Hassan Omar as Secretary General of the UDA Party,” the MPs said in a joint statement, rejecting what they called a half-hearted apology issued by the embattled official.
Omar courted controversy last week during President Ruto’s tour of the coastal region, where he appeared to link the nationwide matatu strike to one specific region. He has since issued a public apology but maintained that his remarks were taken out of context by political adversaries — an explanation the Mt Kenya lawmakers have flatly dismissed.
“Should Hassan Omar fail to tender his resignation voluntarily within the next 48 hours, we will formally present a joint petition to our party leader, His Excellency President William Ruto, to invoke the party organs and officially dismiss him from the position,” the MPs warned.
The lawmakers also threw their full weight behind the National Cohesion and Integration Commission’s ongoing investigation into the matter. “We fully support the ongoing probe by the NCIC and demand that criminal prosecution for hate speech and ethnic incitement be pursued to its logical conclusion,” they said.
The pressure on Omar is not coming from the Mt Kenya bench alone. The opposition, led by former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, has used the controversy to accuse President Ruto of tolerating inflammatory rhetoric from his allies — a charge the ruling party has pushed back against.
Reports suggest that the drive to remove Omar, who has served as UDA Secretary General for less than two years, is partly motivated by a desire among Mt Kenya leaders to consolidate the region’s political bloc ahead of the 2027 elections, with some insisting that certain party officials are undermining those efforts through reckless public remarks.
The clock is now ticking for Omar. Whether he steps down voluntarily or is pushed out, the next 48 hours could reshape the UDA’s internal power dynamics significantly.
