The Democratic National Alliance (DNA) has asked President William Ruto to step down at the end of his first term, describing his administration as brutal and deaf to Kenyans.

DNA accused the joint administration of President Ruto and opposition leader Raila Odinga of presiding over a regime of oppression, corruption and impunity while ignoring the cries of struggling citizens.

The party also argued that President Ruto was failing the very promises he made to Kenyans during his 2022 campaign, calling it a betrayal of the Constitution and the expectations of citizens.

“Ruto himself set out in a template that he gave Kenyans in 2022 when he said, ‘I’m going to accomplish the following things.’ Those things were not set by a tribal community; they were set by the President himself.

“It’s his template, it’s a template that is based on the Constitution of Kenya and the laws of the land and the expectations of the people of Kenya,” said Barrack Muluka, the party Secretary General.

“If the President gets to a point where he starts saying that it is a community, he starts looking like a student who has set an exam for himself, he has set the marking scheme and he has written the exam and he’s failing, then he’s starting to say it is a very difficult exam because it was set by somebody who does not like him. He should just face the truth,” explained Muluka.

Muluka spoke on Thursday during the unveiling of the party’s headquarters in Karen, Nairobi.

He also criticised recent remarks by the President that police should shoot protesters in the legs, arguing it exposed irresponsible leadership and disregard for human life.

“If you shoot a bullet through that tree there, you leave it there, after 18 months it’s going to have naturally recovered. But if you shoot through the leg of a human being, for example, that of Rex Maasai, he will die because of the nature of that anatomy.

“But away from the fact that he’ll die or he’ll get maimed, it is the very height of irresponsibility for the head of state to come out and make that kind of pronouncement. It’s abdication of duty, abdication of responsibility,” said Muluka.

Terming the broad-based government as a deaf administration for listening to nobody, the party leader Godfrey Kanoti faulted it as one that has “distinguished itself for oppression and repression, corruption, opulence and impunity.”

“We regret the loss of lives, the maiming of citizens, the abductions, disappearances and other blatant violations of human and people’s rights through guns and goons,” said Kinoti, accusing the State of sponsoring violence and blaming it on others.

He added: “We join the voices that have taken the view that President Ruto should retire at the end of his first tenure. It is difficult to imagine a stable Kenya under this presidency beyond just a short distance from where we are today.”

The party said Kenyans were facing rising insecurity, state violence and a collapsing health and education sector under the Kenya Kwanza administration, adding that the government’s affordable housing project was a “shameless rip-off” that forced taxpayers to fund an opaque programme.

DNA urged the government to admit that the competency-based curriculum (CBC) in schools had failed, arguing that even teachers and universities did not understand how it worked.

“It is not working, it can’t work, it will not work,” said DNA.

The party said public universities were in chaos due to underfunding and political interference, warning that the University of Nairobi had been brought to its knees while Moi University was dysfunctional.

DNA added that while the government boasted about enrolling Kenyans into healthcare schemes under the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF), it ignored the daily deaths of citizens caused by poor services.

The party unveiled its new headquarters in Karen, Nairobi, moving from Mombasa to ease coordination with the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) and the Office of the Registrar of Political Parties (ORPP).