In a country still reeling from waves of unrest and political distrust, the assassination of Kasipul MP Charles Ong’ondo Were has landed with a disturbing thud of indifference.
Shot dead along Ngong Road by a gunman on a motorcycle, his death has reignited public discourse — not over justice, but over apathy.
At the center of that discourse is a haunting quote that has resurfaced: “We sympathize and move on.”
The now-infamous remark was made by Mandera North MP Bashir Abdullahi just one day after a motion in parliament discussing the effect of a BBC expose ‘the Blood Parliament’ — a hard-hitting documentary that revealed evidence of police and KDF involvement in killing and maiming protesters during the anti-Finance Bill demonstrations.
“It happens all the time. People are killed all the time, we sympathize and move on!”
Instead of sparking reform, Abdullahi’s statement became a grim shorthand for political impunity.
The government dismissed the exposé as propaganda, ignoring the documented loss of civilian lives. Hardly a day later, the same detached tone appears to define the reaction to Were’s killing.
There has been no national outcry. Parliament has offered the usual statements.
Online, attention has already shifted to trending gossip and football.
The public seems exhausted, politically and emotionally, after a year marked by heavy political movements.
The tragedy now lies not just in the MP’s murder, but in what it reveals: a nation numbed to bloodshed, and a government growing increasingly unresponsive to accountability.
If “we sympathize and move on” has become Kenya’s new political mantra, then justice may already be a forgotten relic.
