No handouts, just hype! Salasya brags about packing rallies without spending a dime
Mumias East Member of Parliament (MP) Peter Salsya has boasted of winning Kenyans’ hearts by pulling crowds to his rallies without spending money.
Addressing a rally in Kakamega town during his homecoming stopover on Saturday, June 7, 2025, Salsya stated that people’s love cannot be bought.
“You can buy choppers, expensive T-shirts and toppers, but you can’t buy people’s love. The Voice of Reason is very clear. Look yonder and see,” he stated.
The MP has also pledged to bring new transformative ideas if elected president, just like Burkina Faso’s president, Ibrahim Traoré.
“A country like Burkina Faso has a young president who has done a lot for his country, earning recognition globally. In Kenya, you have to be older, almost in your 50s, to vie for the presidency without new ideas,” he added.
Further, he has criticised President William Ruto’s apology to the Kenyan youth during the 2025 National Prayer Breakfast, saying his apology cannot be accepted without providing jobs to the unemployed young people.
“President William Ruto asked the Gen Zs to forgive him during the National Prayer Breakfast. How can he be forgiven when we have more than four million youths without jobs?” he posed.
The country’s youths are expected to form more than half of the voters in the 2027 polls, with political camps already fighting for their attention.
Ruto’s apology
Speaking at the event held at the Safari Park Hotel on May 28, 2025, the president, William Ruto, emphasised the importance of unity, stating, “Where there is unity, God commands a blessing.”
“To our children, if there has been any misstep, we apologise,” he said.
This marked the first time the president publicly apologised to the youth, following a year of tensions between his government and both Gen Z and Millennials.
In 2024, Gen Z spearheaded massive protests that culminated in the storming of Parliament, demanding radical reforms within the Kenya Kwanza administration.
They were also protesting the Finance Bill, 2024, which introduced a wave of additional taxes, claiming new levies were punitive.
In response, President Ruto later dissolved his Cabinet and formed a broad-based government that included opposition leaders to stabilise the country.
Since then, his administration has faced mounting pressure to meaningfully include youth in decision-making processes.
During the prayer breakfast, the president also urged Kenyans to live in harmony despite their political differences, emphasising the need to build a united and peaceful nation.
Quoting extensively from the Book of Psalms 133, Ruto said, “The Word of God tells us how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to live together in unity.”
“It is in God’s perfect will and plan for us to live together in unity — across political divides, across our communities, and across our religious differences,” he added.
