By Justus Ochieng, NAIROBI
Kenya
Kenya’s Azimio la Umoja One
Kenya Coalition leader Raila Odinga has mooted a series of anti-government
drives to be launched on December 7, and which could lead to a parallel Jamhuri
Day celebration on December 12 as a vote of no confidence against President
William Ruto’s administration.
Mr Odinga and Wiper leader
Kalonzo Musyoka yesterday chaired a coalition Parliamentary Group (PG) meeting
in Nairobi, where the decision to launch anti-government pushbacks was
endorsed.
Multiple sources at the
meeting held at the SKM (Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka) centre in Karen, Nairobi,
told the Nation that the PG discussed the possibility of
holding a parallel national celebration on December 12, after the launch of the
drive on December 7.
“The matter (of a parallel
event) was indeed discussed as a follow-up to the December 7 event, but the
leadership agreed to examine it and make a decision,” said a source that was at
the Karen meeting.
Another source said: “Some
leaders were, however, of the opinion that Jamhuri Day is an important national
event that ought not to be destabilised.”
Should Mr Odinga agree to hold
a parallel Jamhuri Day event, it will not be the first time. On October 20,
2017, he hosted parallel Mashujaa Day celebrations in Kisumu at a prayer
service for victims of police brutality.
The opposition is accusing
President Ruto’s administration of orchestrating a witch-hunt against the four
commissioners of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC)
that disowned the results of the presidential election.
They are vice-chairperson
Juliana Cherera and commissioners Justus Nyang’aya, Irene Masit and Francis Wanderi.
The opposition also holds that
the decision to import genetically modified (GM) maize by the government,
insecurity across the country and the high cost of living, are enough to
mobilise the public to stop the government’s excesses.
“We are meeting against the
background of the continuing rise in the cost of basic commodities, plans by
the government to introduce GM maize and seeds into our country and a
determination by the Kenya Kwisha administration to create an electoral body in
Ruto’s own image and after his liking. That push to reorganise the IEBC is
camouflaged as a trial of the four IEBC commissioners,” the coalition said in a
statement read by National Assembly Minority leader Opiyo Wandayi.
An earlier plan to launch the
anti-government rallies in Kamukunji, Nairobi, today, was shelved, with the
leaders saying the decision was arrived at to allow the smooth running of the
ongoing national examinations.
“To this end, we have decided
to reschedule the start of our public engagements from tomorrow (today), the
30th of November 2022, to the 7th of December 2022 due to the ongoing national
examinations. We have listened to the appeals of parents and our school-going
children and we decided to obey their wishes,” says the PG in the statement read
by Mr Wandayi.
Mr Odinga had earlier
announced plans to hold a series of rallies in his political bases to solicit
support for the four besieged IEBC commissioners facing ouster.
The rallies, christened
‘consultative meetings’ with his supporters, he noted, will seek the public’s
say in the push by President Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza Alliance to send home the
four.
He also said the meetings will
take place in the wake of the government’s “unpopular policies”, including the
importation of GM maize, insecurity across the country and the high cost of
living.
Yesterday, the Nation established
that apart from the ongoing examinations, the Azimio PG agreed to allow the
current process against the IEBC officials to proceed to avoid being prejudicial,
even though they termed it “a lynch mob, a hired hit squad and an illegality
with a predetermined position”.
The onslaught against the Ruto
government, Mr Odinga holds, will be heightened, in a bid to resist his efforts
to create an electoral body “in his own image”.
“That push to reorganise the
IEBC is camouflaged as a trial of the four IEBC commissioners,” Mr Wandayi
said.
He added: “The PG resolved
that the JLAC hearings against the four IEBC commissioners are a lynch mob, a
hired hit squad and an illegality with a predetermined position. We don’t
recognise it and won’t recognise or honour its findings. Instead, we will fight
it to the bitter end in and outside the House.”
Terming the JLAC hearings a
“Kangaroo” meeting, the Azimio PG claimed there are plans to table its products
on Thursday, December 1, and subsequently a special sitting to sanitise the
report to be called on December 7.
“This is how desperate and
insensitive the regime is. They are calling a special sitting, not about hunger
or drought, insecurity and related issues. Instead, they are focusing on petty
political scores and 2027 elections.”
“We appeal to the Kenya Kwisha
administration to please focus. Focus on what really matters for Kenyans now,
which is the cost of living, and not 2027 elections,” Mr Wandayi read.
He went on: “Our stand remains
that the focus on the four commissioners is not about 2022 elections. It is
about the 2027 elections, whose rigging the Ruto regime is putting in place in
2022.”
Mr Odinga is reportedly
working on an elaborate plan to mobilise Kenyans and pile pressure on the Ruto
administration to fulfil its campaign pledges.
Insiders in his camp believe that failure by the President to address the hard
economic times, coupled with “unpopular policies” could lead to an uprising and
negatively affect his administration.
To stop the Ruto government
from burdening Kenyans, they say, the opposition will have no option but to
resort to “tax boycott, peaceful non-violent struggle, civil disobedience and
other unspecified consequences”.
“He is keen to launch massive
rallies at the elapse of Ruto’s first 100 days in office,” a source said.
At the SKM Centre, other
sources revealed, the meeting was stormy, with MPs revisiting what they termed
as “skewed” committee placements that saw some members allocated only one
committee.
“After heated deliberations,
it was agreed that another Parliamentary Group is convened next week to put the
Azimio House in order so that as the struggle begins, the House is united.”
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