The government, led by President William Ruto, has dared Azimio leader Raila Odinga over the Monday’s planned demos.
Speaking in Kirinyaga County on Sunday during a thanksgiving ceremony, leaders allied to Kenya Kwanza coalition dared the opposition chief to make good his threats of holding demonstrations against the government. Raila Odinga has been out of the country for a while now, and should be jetting back to the country this morning. From the airport, the opposition leader has planned to go to Kamukunji ground, in Nairobi, to kick-start his countrywide planned demos against the government – and would also tell Kenyans how Wafula Chebukati stole his victory in favour of the current president William Ruto. “They cannot hold this country hostage again. Over the years, he (Mr Odinga) has held protests and benefited. You want to plan protests for me? Go ahead, but I will not dwell on settling issues of one person,” he added.
The President said the Azimio coalition failed to disrupt the last elections using ‘deep state’ and they have now again resorted to orchestrate protests to disrupt his administration’s development agenda.
“Kenyans should not be worried. I will not allow a few people to go to a corner to plan on how to threaten us through protests to make us deviate from addressing the needs of Kenyans. They want us to cater for their interests but we are used to them. We are telling them that the end has come. Be satisfied with what you previously earned from threats before and allow us to serve Kenyans,” Dr Ruto said.
Leaders present during the thanksgiving-cum interdenominational prayer meeting echoed the President’s stand on the planned demos. “The President is busy and Mr Odinga should stop interfering with his duties of transforming the country,” said Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua. Mr Gachagua further accused Mr Odinga of creating false allegations that the polls were rigged in favour of Dr Ruto.
“Mr Odinga is saying he has a whistleblower who is a white man. This whistleblower is his worker and he is using him to peddle lies about the polls which we fairly won,” he said. Ugenya Member of Parliament David Ochieng – who ditched opposition coalition for Kenya Kwanza, told the Opposition not to participate in the planned demos, arguing that such plans would derail the country’s economy.
“Losing an election comes with a lot of bitterness and Azimio leaders are encountering that. They should not allow their bitterness to disrupt what our President has planned for this country. We need unity and development across the country. Why did they wait for Chebukati to exit to bring these hullabaloos?” said Mr Ochieng’.
