By Jamesa Wafula in Nairobi jackson.kairu@yahoo.com
Kenya’s main opposition
Azimio coalition has
warned President William
Ruto that it will resume countrywide
street protests if bipartisan talks fail to
yield desired results.
Azimio accused Kenya Kwanza
government of being “insincere”
accusing deputy president Rigathi
Gachagau of leading hardliners
blocking a political truce.
Speaking on conclusion of a day
long consultative meeting at the
historic venue of Ufungamana
Azimio leader Raila Odinga, 78, said
the government did not appear to be
taking issues raised seriously and had
resorted to banal comments and vile
insults.
“We will go back to the people to
tell them what we have discussed
and agreed on and that is street
demonstrations alongside talks until
the government responds to our
demands” Odinga told stakeholders
at the meeting who included civil
society, religious leaders, and trade
unionists.
Odinga said a major rally is now
scheduled Sunday April 16 at
Nairobi’s Kamukunji grounds where
Azimio will once again be expected
to make a raft of demands to the
government before commencing
mass protests.
But Deputy President Gachagau
has laughed off threats to return to
the streets saying “they can go ahead
the streets have not gone anywhere”!
insisting that the government would
not cave in to “political blackmail.
But Azimio Siaya senator James
Orengo has accused the DP of being a
stumbling block to the planned peace
talks saying he was contradicting
his boss President Ruto who had
“humbly requested his brother Raila”
to stop the street demonstrations so
they could talk.” Orengo said the tone
of voice by the DP showing blatant
contempt to Azmio leader Raila. The
DP claims the only talks they can hold
is that of Raila retiring from politics!
This he said is contempt and not in good faith as it could only muddy the
waters.
Hardliners at Ufungamano led
by abrasive Nairobi MP George
Aladwa said the only language the
government understood was mass
action warning “cowards” to give
way vowing to make Raila “fifth
President”.
The speakers including a former
Minister in the past regime Eugene
Wamalwa all addressed Raila as “his
excellency the people’s president” in
apparent recognition of his defiant
mock swearing in at Uhuru park
January 31 2018.
While many speakers claimed they
had irrefutable data to prove that
Raila won the presidency on August
9, 2022, Odinga’s chief agent Ole
Sankok has published a book “5th
President why Raila missed it” in
which he has blamed officials at the
Bomas national tallying centre. The
138 page book however falls short
of tabling data to prove a Odinga
victory instead conceding that Azmio
underestimated Ruto who is a “good
planner and astute schemer’!
The agent says Raila “lost” to Ruto
because he had “blindly” trusted the
system and the election managers
under his ally President Uhuru
Kenyatta expecting victory on a
“silver platter”.
He said Azimio party headquarters
even engaged in early celebrations
laying out a red carpet at KICC ready
to welcome “President Raila Odinga.”
The agent argues that like his
father Jaramogi, Raila could be the
“good president” Kenya never had!
He argues that in Kenya and indeed
Africa elections are not “won” but they
are “taken”. The agent further argued
that while Ruto planned ahead several years earlier as President Kenyatta
took Raila around to commission
“handshake projects”, Ruto schemers
were busy making sure “he won the
presidency at all costs”.
Indeed at one time while
campaigning days to the election,
a resilient confident Ruto had
curiously asked the crowd to look
at him properly! “Do I look like a
person whose votes can be stolen?” he
taunted the crowd raising eyebrows
among friends and foes.
Many then claimed Ruto was too
confident of “winning” against the
“system” and “deep state” as if he knew
a lot more than his main competitor.
Odinga chief agent indeed goes on
to concede that whatever went on at
what he later termed a “crime scene”
at Bomas national tallying centre
might never become public but says
Ruto would not succeed in fixing the
economy despite getting the power.
Speaker after speaker hardliners
at Ufungamano vowed to ensure
“Baba the 5th” becomes a reality with
the “snake man” Wajackoyo openly
demanding that Ruto leave state
house or be “ejected by force”.
Its not clear what concessions the
talks that are yet to begin are likely
to yield but if hardliners like the DP
and Aladwa have their way then the
political crisis is likely to persist and
require international intervention like
the 2007-2008 deadly post election
violence that claimed 1350 lives and
displaced 650,000.
Only a UN brokered peace truce
backed by the US saved the day
for East Africa’s largest economy
as ethnic-driven political violence
almost tore the country apart.
Former UN Secretary General
Koffi Annan (rip) spent 30 days of
painstaking negotiations at Serena
hotel between the Odinga camp and
President Mwai Kibaki also now long
gone to his maker.
The result was a national accord
that created a power sharing structure
in which Raila became Prime Minister
while Kibaki retained the presidency.
Raila now says Ruto should be
prepared for such an arrangement
even as DP Gachagau vows it will
only happen “over his dead body”■
