AfriPulse
The United Green Movement (UGM) Party responded to sexual harassment allegations made by a former campaign staffer, Shakira Wafula, defending how it handled the matter.
In a statement on Wednesday, June 3, the party rejected claims that its flagbearer, former Chief Justice David Maraga, sidelined women after complaints surfaced.
Wafula came forward after Maraga attended the June 1 End Femicide demonstrations on Kenyatta Avenue in Nairobi. She questioned his commitment to protecting women and said he ignored her earlier reports of sexual harassment from a senior official in his party.
Wafula wrote, “On a day meant for us to grieve and send a message to the world to protect women and children, the sight of someone who should have protected women and had failed to do so broke something in me.”
She later reiterated her grievances, adding, “Maraga arriving at the matriarch’s grief sit-down with flowers and a clear desire to command attention is deeply distasteful. Coming from someone whose campaign sidelined women after mishandling sexual harassment allegations, the optics are particularly troubling. Some moments call for humility, not political theater.”
Within hours, Wafula, who resigned from Maraga’s presidential campaign in November 2025, citing differences in foundational values, posted a detailed account of events on X.
In her account, she said she left because of the campaign’s handling of sexual harassment and assault allegations involving two senior officials close to the campaign leadership. She also claimed the campaign systematically tried to undermine complainants, pushed them out of campaign activities, and shaped internal processes so that those accused faced little consequence.
Wafula further alleged that the crisis started on October 7, 2025. She said she met with two other women from the campaign in Nairobi for dinner after traveling to share frustrations about the campaign’s direction.
She stated that what followed involved a shared realization among the women that sexual harassment in the campaign did not represent an isolated incident.
Wafula wrote that she later discovered UGM had no formal system for women to report misconduct. She said the party also lacked a designated safe contact and a written protocol for handling complaints.
In response, UGM set out a timeline of events tied to the sexual harassment allegations and what happened during the key days once investigations began.
UGM said that on October 11, 2025, Wafula and two other women met virtually with a senior campaign member. During the session, they orally raised allegations against a senior UGM official.
The meeting ended with an agreement to bring in two additional campaign members for a follow-up discussion.
After the women selected the two people, the Campaign Secretariat contacted the complainants on October 13, 2025, to agree on a date to hear the allegations promptly, as the party said it normally does.
UGM stated that the complainants could not attend until October 16, 2025, when the follow-up meeting took place.
The party said the three complainants and their aide later met with campaign representatives and discussed possible legal options.
UGM reported that the representatives advised the women to file formal complaints in writing. It said the women were requested to submit individual written complaints under UGM party rules, but they did not do so.
Instead, UGM said, they sought an audience with Maraga on October 22, 2025, and demanded the immediate suspension of the accused official without a hearing, based on unwritten allegations.
UGM added that Maraga listened to their account and asked them to submit individual written complaints for proper processing, but they again failed to provide written versions at that stage.
The party said that after reminders from the Campaign Secretariat, the complainants eventually submitted a joint written complaint on November 3, 2025.
UGM said it acknowledged the complaint and forwarded it through party structures, which led the National Executive Committee to set up an Ad-Hoc Complaint Committee on November 16, 2025.
The party said it informed both the complainants and the accused official that the committee would hear the matter on November 26, 2025.
UGM further stated that Wafula did not acknowledge receipt of the notice. It added that she resigned the same day, on November 17, 2025, citing the decision to have the complaint handled through UGM and alleged delays.
UGM said that even after Wafula resigned, the party continued the complaint process in line with its constitution.
The party stated that, as scheduled, the Ad-Hoc Complaint Committee held the hearing on November 26, 2025. It said Wafula refused to attend despite follow-ups requesting that she give testimony, and it added that she told the committee she no longer wanted to pursue the complaint.
UGM reported that after hearing the remaining complainants and the alleged perpetrator, the committee found no evidence supporting the sexual harassment allegations.
The party said it later shared the committee’s report with Wafula even though she did not take part in the hearing. It added that Wafula still had the option to pursue other legal remedies if she disagreed with the outcome.
UGM also said the allegations never targeted Maraga personally.
The party maintained that Maraga did not appoint the committee or interfere with its proceedings, adding that the internal process ran independently and followed party rules.
UGM said Wafula’s claims therefore amounted to malicious and unfair misdirection because, in its view, she refused to participate in the internal due process or pursue other legal options after raising the matter from October 11, 2025.
“Note that the sexual harassment claims were not made against the Hon. David Maraga. His audience was sought and granted, and he directed the complaints be handled in accordance with due process mechanisms of the Party.
“It is therefore malicious, unfair, dishonest, and misdirected for Ms. Shakira Wafula to attempt to publicly malign and soil the character of the Hon. Chief Justice Emeritus, having refused to participate in the internal due process or pursue other legal options as she was advised to do since the 11th of October, 2025, when she first raised the matter,” the statement explained.
The party further defended Maraga’s attendance at the anti-femicide protest, saying his participation matched his public and private support for victims of injustice and grieving families.
UGM accused Wafula of running a campaign meant to damage Maraga’s reputation. It said she pursued what it described as public disinformation and defamatory claims and pushed for arbitrary punishment without due process.
UGM concluded that it would not focus on what it called engineered political drama and said accountability for sexual offenses should follow the law through fair and responsible due process.
“We shall not be distracted from our quest for Kenya’s Ukombozi by engineered political drama. True accountability against perpetrators of sexual offenses is not about melodrama, clout chasing, or engagement farming on social media, but about taking responsible steps to enforce the law, including taking part in due processes and applying the law fairly,” the statement concluded.
Source: NairobiWire.com | Read the Full Story…
