Senate Majority Leader Aaron Cheruiyot has questioned the arrest of activist Rose Njeri over the creation of a platform for Kenyans to give feedback on the Finance Bill, 2025.
Speaking on Monday, Cheruiyot said her arrest was bad and not what they want to have as a country.
“This is not a good thing. It's not what we envision of a country. The thing that troubles me the most is the reason why she is being arrested or what is being reported as the reason for her arrest,” he said.
The Kericho Senator insisted on having a proper and faster way of giving feedback whenever it's about issues affecting the country.
He noted that what Njeri had created was such, and it was brilliant.
“When we have topical issues, things that concern the entire country, we should find ways in which we can receive feedback more easily. There has to be a proper way of feeding back into the system, and I thought what she had done was brilliant unless there's something else we are missing.”
Cheruiyot said that he, at one point, thought he could be the reason behind Njeri's arrest, narrating how the Senate moved a motion to have Parliament come up with a quicker way of receiving feedback beyond the existing traditional means from members of the public, immediately after the Gen Z protests.
“Many young people do not send feedback in emails and traditional ways, and we said perhaps they feel not included in the conversation because of the channel. Even I don’t send emails that much, and I'm not a younger person. Even my generation we are quick on WhatsApp, we wish to communicate more easily, and that's part of the recommendation.
“What I'm reading and hearing you guys say is that she had made a platform for doing this, and of course, it’s being said it’s for rejecting, but it's for feedback anyway. That's in essence what public participation is all about,” Cheruiyot said.
Njeri was arrested on Friday, May 30, 2025, in South B, Nairobi.
"I wrote a simple programme that lets you reject the Finance Bill 2025 with just one click. Click below to send your objection," she said in a tweet.
The latest reports said her family and lawyers had been denied access to her at Pangani Police station.
A group of activists on Sunday stormed Pangani police station in Nairobi, demanding her immediate release.
The Finance Bill 2025 proposes several key changes to enhance tax collection and simplify compliance.
