NAIROBI, Kenya
Kenya's opposition coalition party leader Raila Odinga has today alleged an assassination attempt on his life during Thursday’s anti-government protests in Nairobi.
The opposition chief, addressing the media in Karen, claimed his car was shot at seven times with live bullets, in what he believes was a direct attempt to take him out.
Mr. Odinga hence hit out at the President William Ruto-led government, accusing it of taking the country to pre-colonial times with what he termed as attacks against peaceful demonstrators merely exercising their rights.
He further slammed foreign nations for allegedly fanning the conflict instead of solving it by, first - and at the very least - standing on the fence and not taking sides.
"We condemn in the strongest terms possible what has happened today. Today is a very sad day in the history of this country. This shows that we’re degenerating into the colonial stage, where lives of Africans did not matter at all, because there’s no reason why police should use this kind of force against unarmed citizens who are merely exercising their democratic rights,” he said.
"My own car was hit seven times with live bullets, and the direction of the bullets were all aimed at me. These people have been threatening and blackmailing us, unfortunately the friends of this country are not helping. Look at the statement released by some ambassador based here, you would think that they live in a different country; they’re actually adding fuel to this conflict, instead of being independent and neutral arbiters.”
The former Prime Minister further condemned attacks on the press witnessed during Thursday protests, where at least four journalists from different media houses – among them Citizen TV – were hospitalised after reportedly being brutalised by both goons and police officers while covering the demos.
He also alleged a plot hatched by senior government officials to raid property owned by former President Uhuru Kenyatta, in what would’ve been reminiscent of the invasion of the ex-Head of State’s Northlands farm on Monday.
"It is very unfortunate that in the whole of these skirmishes, the media is being targeted for attack. The other day and today, several journalists have been injured,” he said.
"We also had information that they were planning to attack Uhuru’s farm, business, and residences.”
Mr. Odinga also maintained his grievances, stating that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) server should be opened and an audit done so that any doubts about the election are put to rest.
He added that the four disgraced and sacked IEBC commissioners led by former Vice Chair Juliana Cherera, should be reinstated.
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