Kenya’s main opposition leader and former Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, has raised the alarm that the Kenyan Government led by President William Ruto and his allies have perfected plots to assassinate leaders of Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition party, which planned to stage protests on Tuesday, May 2 in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital.
Odinga made this known in press statement he issued on Sunday, stressing that the coalition party has taken note of the dark warnings from the Kenya Kwanza regime regarding peaceful protests ,adding that no threats of assassination will deter the protests.
Massive protests spearheaded by Odinga have hit Kenya, since the Kenyan presidential election, which Ruto won, but was disputed by Odinga and his supporters, despite the court’s having ruled in favor of Ruto. The protests were also said to be triggered by poor living conditions of Kenyans amid political and social injustice.
Odinga said further that there has been repeated threats of assassination of Azimio leaders from Mr. Rigathi Gachagua and Mr. Moses Kuria. He added that the latest grim warning has come from Hon. William Ruto, who yesterday vowed to stop the planned demonstrations at all costs and declared them “nonsense.”
The former prime minister however, warned President Ruto and his allies to desist from such threats as the Kenyan Constitution makes peaceful protests legitimate.
Part of the statement read, “We wish to state as follows: The Constitution of Kenya, which in Article 37 provides that ‘Every person has the right, peaceably and unarmed, to assemble, to demonstrate, to picket, and to present petitions to public authorities’ has not been suspended.
“Unless Mr. Ruto wants to suspend the constitution and rule by decree, we will exercise our right to assemble, demonstrate, picket and present petitions on Tuesday, 2nd May 2023, as earlier announced, dark threats notwithstanding.
“On that day, we shall present a petition to the IEBC showing that the election results were doctored and demand an audit of the servers. We shall also petition IEBC against the sacking of the four commissioners because it presents a dangerous precedent in which in all future elections, all commissioners will be required to agree with the chairperson of IEBC, effectively making election a one person show.
“We shall equally present a petition to the Office of the President proving that the cost of food, fuel, electricity and fees remain unacceptably high. We will further petition OP to desist from invading and destroying rival political parties as was attempted on Jubilee headquarters and through auction of MPs in Parliament.
“We will be visiting the National Treasury on 2nd May, 2023 to petition for the immediate release of all funds owed to counties and the timely payment of salaries to all civil servants.”
The protesters also planned to visit the Public Service Commission on the day to demand that appointments to public offices be done purely on the basis of merit and inclusivity, not tribe as is presently the case. They also denounced alleged lopsided appointments of Ruto, saying” we cannot have a country of close to 50 tribes where appointments go only to members of one tribe.”
The statement noted further that the protesters shall not be cowed into silence when so many things are going wrong in the country; with cults that enjoy patronage and protection from State House killing Kenyans, including children, in their hundreds, goons hired by the state invading and destroying private property, massive corruption making a grand return to the country and tribalism taking an unprecedented sway in public offices.
“We believe the 2010 Constitution of Kenya was made for a time like this; when a cabal of ideologically bankrupt individuals commandeer the nation and seek to undermine its foundations. In strict adherence to this constitution, we shall continue with our planned actions.
“We remind Hon. Ruto that the powers, responsibilities and functions of a commander-in-chief, which he repeats he is, are clearly spelt out in the Constitution and do not include the overthrow of the constitution, which he is attempting to do with attacks on our planned protests.
“If the regime choses to turn our peaceful and constitutional activities into a showdown and assassinations that Mr. Kuria and Mr. Gachagua are threatening, so be it, we are ready,” the statement added.
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