Nairobi — Opposition Leader Raila Odinga has announced the ‘mother of all demonstrations’ on Monday next week after police blocked him from accessing Jacaranda grounds on Thursday.
Odinga said he will have no option but to mobilize more protests unless the Kenya Kwanza government addresses their concerns, among them the high cost of living and electoral reforms.
“We are very reasonable people and we believe that we have got very valid reasons on why we need to have a conversation but in the absence of preparedness of the other side to cooperate these demonstrations are going continue,” Odinga said, and declared that “On Monday there is going to be another demonstration. This will be the mother of all demonstrations which will take place irrespective of what our detractors say or think.”
Odinga, who addressed a press conference from his Karen residence after Thursday protests, insisted that despite the high-handedness of police officers to block Azimio supporters to stage protests in various parts of the country, they will not stop pushing for electoral reforms and lowering the high cost of living.
Odinga insists he won last year’s election in which he accuses President William Ruto of stealing his vote.
“I am saying that the IEBC servers must be opened so that we can know the truth,” he said, and demanded the reinstatement of four commissioners who disowned final results of the election which they claimed were rigged to favour Ruto.
Odinga contested the results in the Supreme Court but the petition was dismissed for lack of evidence.
He has criticised the ongoing exercise to re-constitute the electoral commission saying “it is an exercise in futility unless all players are involved.”
On Thursday, he criticized the violence meted on journalists by police officers during the protest in which several were injured after tear gas canisters were lobbed at their vehicle as they relayed live coverage.
“It is very unfortunate that the media is being targeted for attack. Several journalists have been injured today by the teargas canisters that have been thrown left right and center,” Odinga stated.
The Opposition Leader alleged that Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua and National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichungwa plotted the attack on journalists during the demonstration.
Without providing evidence, he also claimed that a plot had been hatched to attack Royal Media Services, owners of Citizen TV and several radio stations.
“We had information that they were planning to attack Uhuru’s farm, residences, and the royal media premises. I heard from credible sources that Gachagua, Ichungwa, and Ndindi Nyoro were planning this,” Odinga stated, “These people are not the people who are called the Deputy President and Majority Leader, these are people who belong to jail.”
The Azimio Leader is pushing President William Ruto’s administration to rescind its decision on removing the subsidies on key food commodities on claims that it’s unsustainable, so as to lower the cost of living.
“That’s why we are calling for the subsidies which were introduced to alleviate the suffering of our people because of the circumstances beyond the control of our country, must be restored irrespective of what IMF or the World Bank says,” Odinga asserted.
Sporadic violence broke out in Kenya on Thursday, the third day of opposition demonstrations to protest at the government and the high cost of living.
Security was tight, with police in riot gear patrolling the capital Nairobi after fierce clashes erupted during similar protests on Monday.
On Thursday, dozens of people in the congested Nairobi neighborhoods of Mathare and Kibera engaged police in running battles, throwing rocks, and burning tires while officers responded with tear gas.
In Odinga’s lakeside bastions of Kisumu and Homa Bay in western Kenya, protesters also hurled rocks at police and lit bonfires in the middle of the road.
Odinga has called for protests every Monday and Thursday, accusing President Ruto of stealing last year’s election and of failing to control the surging cost of living.
The demonstrations — declared illegal by the government — have turned violent on previous days, with police firing tear gas, water cannon, and occasionally live bullets, while looters have gone on the rampage.
Two civilians have been killed and 51 police officers and 85 civilians injured since last week, according to government figures.
The international community and religious leaders have called for calm, voicing fears that the violence could degenerate into the ethnic post-election fighting witnessed after the 2007 election that claimed the lives of more than 1,100 people.
“We are deeply concerned by the recent unrest and violence as well as destruction of places of worship and private property,” eight foreign embassies, including the United States and former colonial power Britain said in a joint statement Wednesday.
