DAP-Kenya candidate Seth Panyako has accused President William Ruto of personally ordering his elimination from the Malava by-election race after his driver was brutally attacked, his business premises in Chevaywa vandalised, and his family members beaten until they fled into hiding on Tuesday night.
Speaking to journalists from an undisclosed location on Wednesday afternoon, a visibly shaken Panyako claimed that UDA point man Stanley Livondo received direct instructions from State House to ensure he withdraws or faces total destruction.
Seth Panyako said, “Wacha Ruto achukue ubunge wa Malava, Mimi sitaki. Wacha achukue, akule na Mama yake na Baba yake, wacha Wanandi watawale Kenya.”
Panyako said, “President Ruto told Livondo clearly that I must be finished completely.” Seth said, ‘Let Ruto take the Malava parliamentary seat; I don’t want it.’ Let him take it and eat it with his mother and father; let the Nandis rule Kenya,” Panyako revealed.
Barely hours after making those remarks, suspected hired goons descended on Panyakos’s home in Shirakalu village at around 2 am.
Family members said more than thirty youths armed with machetes and clubs stormed the compound, assaulted everyone they found, and set upon the candidate’s driver, a 42-year-old man identified only as Patrick, leaving him with deep head injuries.
The attackers then moved to Panyakos hardware shop along the Malava-Kakamega road, smashing windows, looting goods worth millions, and torching two delivery trucks.
In a separate incident on the same night, DAP-Kenya party leader Eugene Wamalwa escaped death by minutes when his convoy was ambushed near Musembe trading centre.
Witnesses said a group of youths blocked the road with burning tyres before hurling stones at the lead vehicle carrying the former Cabinet Secretary.
The Toyota Land Cruiser burst into flames as police officers who arrived at the scene allegedly watched without intervening.
Wamalwa and his aides managed to switch vehicles and speed away toward Kakamega town. Residents who recorded the burning car on their phones claimed the officers present were from Malava Police Station and appeared to recognise some of the attackers.
“They just stood there laughing as the vehicle burnt. One officer was even telling the youths to finish the job quickly,” said a boda boda operator who sought anonymity for fear of reprisals.
“We have launched investigations, and several people have been summoned for questioning,” the chief stated when reached by phone.
The escalation has sent shockwaves across the Luhya community, with elders from various sub-tribes calling an urgent meeting in Kakamega town to discuss what they term systematic targeting of DAP-Kenya leaders in Western Kenya.
Meanwhile, the UDA candidate in the Malava race distanced himself from the violence and urged supporters to remain peaceful. “Elections are about ideas, not violence. I condemn any attack on my opponents in the strongest terms possible,” Washiali said during a rally in Chevaywa on Wednesday.
The wave of attacks comes barely a day after three alleged goons were caught and severely beaten at Panyakos’s home, highlighting the rapidly deteriorating security situation in what was once considered a peaceful by-election.
