Kalonzo Renews Duale Resignation Demand at Mwingi North Funeral
September 2026
Wiper Patriotic Front leader Kalonzo Musyoka demanded the resignation of Health Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale and United Democratic Alliance (UDA) Secretary-General Hassan Omar while addressing mourners in Mumoni, Mwingi North Sub-county, Kitui County. Musyoka spoke on Saturday during the burial of Pastor William Muthengi, telling the gathering that leaders who fan ethnic division have no business holding public office.
The Kalonzo Duale resignation demand lands in the middle of a wider national row that has been running for weeks. It follows a viral clip in which Duale appeared to contrast how the Somali and Kikuyu communities fared under past and present administrations, crediting President William Ruto with ending what he described as historical discrimination against Somalis.
Funeral Remarks In Mumoni
Musyoka told mourners that holding public office should not shield leaders from accountability for divisive rhetoric. “They have failed the test miserably, together with their chief boss,” Musyoka said during the funeral, extending his criticism to the Ruto administration as a whole.
He went further, arguing that State House should be a place of work and justice rather than a hub for cartels. Musyoka also used the platform to warn against what he called arbitrary arrests and the intimidation of opposition supporters, a theme he has raised at several recent gatherings.
For residents of Mwingi North, the funeral itself was a local event, drawing the kind of large political turnout that often follows senior leaders to burials in the sub-county. That the national Duale-Omar row played out in Mumoni put the ward briefly at the centre of a story that otherwise concerns Nairobi-based politics.
Duale And Omar Respond
Duale has rejected the accusations, insisting his comments were quoted out of context. The Health CS said the phrase he used was a Somali proverb about the difficulty of breaking long-held habits, not a jab at any community.
He has ruled out apologising, maintaining that his remarks were deliberately twisted to manufacture a controversy. Omar’s situation looks somewhat different. He landed in trouble over separate comments on historical land injustices at the Coast, made during a function in Mombasa, but later expressed regret to anyone who felt offended, saying he had only meant to raise unresolved land disputes rather than disparage any group.
NCIC Probe Continues
The National Cohesion and Integration Commission has opened an investigation into Duale’s remarks, treating them as potentially inciteful along ethnic lines. That probe was still active as of the funeral remarks, with no public timeline for when it might conclude.
Musyoka is not alone in calling for consequences. People’s Liberation Party leader Martha Karua separately urged President Ruto to dismiss Duale, warning that silence would be read as tolerance of tribal politics inside government. Duale, for his part, has pushed back by demanding that the commission also question Democracy for the Citizens Party leader Rigathi Gachagua over his own past remarks, arguing that investigators are applying a double standard.
That tit-for-tat leaves the underlying question unresolved. Duale is refusing to apologise or step aside, Karua and Musyoka want him gone, and the NCIC has yet to say when its inquiry will produce findings that could settle whether Mumoni’s funeral rhetoric marks a turning point or just another round in a long-running national argument.
