Demand the immediate Release of Comrade Booker Ngesa Omole! Extend Solidarity to the Kenyan Revolution!
The International Women's Alliance decries the violent kidnapping of Comrade Booker Ngesa Omole, secretary general of of the Communist Party of Marxist Kenya (CPMK), and condemns the US-backed Ruto regime for its blatant fascist attack against CPMK, their organizations, and all those fighting for the genuine liberation and sovereignty of Kenya. At the hands of the Kenya Police Service, Comrade Omole was kidnapped, tortured, and severely beaten. Police cut him with a pen knife, and broke his teeth and fingers. Afterwards he was taken to Mlolongo Police Station, an infamous site in Kenya for its systematic terror, torture and extrajudicial killings against poor Kenyans and political activists. As of February 26 Comrade Booker was transferred to Kitengela Remand Prison with a broken arm after being denied medical care and bail.
Comrade Omole's abduction, abuse and imprisonment is a blatant attack on the growing movement of Kenyan workers, peasants, youth, and women who are fighting for a genuinely free Kenya. The attack and detention of Comrade Omole is a marker that the Ruto regime is afraid of the revolutionary movement that is growing in Kenya under the leadership of CPMK. As a puppet of US-imperialism, Ruto will stop at nothing to protect his power and to safeguard US interests in Kenya. Ruto's fascism and anti-people stance is laid bare in the kidnapping of Comrade Omole and does nothing to solve the issues of the Kenyan masses. This capture will only perpetuate more violence towards the people and genuine peoples organizations, further exposing the anti-people nature of the Ruto regime.
The CPMK, along side anti-imperialist and progressive organizations, have arduously taken up the task to unite the working and toiling Kenyan people across the entire country to fight for their land, rights and national liberation. The fighting strength of the Kenyan people has proved effective preventing the Ruto Regime's attempts to further align with US imperialist interests by opening up Kenya to foreign investments and IMF loans, as well as privatizing national industries and state assets. In June 2024 Kenyan people bravely opposed the passing of Ruto's Finance Bill which would have cut the national budget by 999 billion Kenyan Shillings (aprox. $7billion). During the course of the protests dozens were killed and disappeared and hundreds were arrested. At the time, Comrade Omole and others from CPMK faced increased intimidation and harrassment, which has only increased in the wake of increased protests fueled by the Kenyan people's outrage against Ruto's corruption and anti-people policies.
IWA sends our greatest sympathies and solidarity to our sisters in the Revolutionary Women's League (RWL) in Kenya who are impacted by this act of state terror against the Kenyan people, and echo their demands for the immediate release of Comrade Booker. Under president Ruto the condition of women in Kenya has deteriorated. Women face increased rise of femicide, intimate partner violence, economic precarity, and state violence. RWL tirelessly organizes and equips women to address the root cause of their suffering by exposing and opposing the rotten Ruto regime's violence against women and unites women to join in the National Democratic Struggle for a free Kenya! We call on our members to condemn his arrest as an attack on the working and toiling people of Kenya. We echo the call of CPMK for the immediate and unconditional release of Comrade Omole. We know that Comrade Booker's detention and subsequent torture will only serve to further enliven the revolutionary movement in Kenya by sparking the outrage of working and toiling Kenyans, and drives another nail into the coffin of the US-Ruto regime.
Release Comrade Booker Now!
Expose and Oppose the Rotten US-Ruto Regime!
Long Live the people of Kenya in their fight for national liberation!
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