A major confrontation looms between the government and the Opposition after Cord leader Raila Odinga declared his team will not go through Parliament in its bid to eject IEBC commissioners. He said Cord will go ahead with weekly demonstrations at Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission offices across the country despite the government warning it would not tolerate chaotic protests.
Last week, President Uhuru Kenyatta asked Cord to spare Kenyans the theatrics over IEBC, saying not even demonstrations will make him illegally reconstitute IEBC as the Opposition demands. Elsewhere, Interior Cabinet secretary Joseph Nkaissery yesterday said the government will not allow anyone to incite the public to engage in activities that could threaten national peace and stability.
But speaking in an interview with a local TV station on Sunday night, Raila said the coalition is not ready to be humiliated by the Jubilee’s tyranny of numbers in Parliament and challenged the President to hold dialogue with the Opposition and agree on how IEBC will be reconstituted. “You know what Jubilee does with its tyranny of numbers in Parliament. It is an abuse of the Constitution itself. We will not subject ourselves to such kind of humiliation,” Raila said.
“The President has time to talk to us now otherwise the consequences will be too grave to contemplate. It is a waste of time to continue to hang on this IEBC unless he wants to have an election on his own terms,” he added. In a separate function, Amani National Congress party leader Musalia Mudavadi threatened to boycott 2017 General Election if IEBC is not restructured.
He said the polls agency body has lost the confidence of Kenyans and should be disbanded (see separate story). But Raila insisted that the coalition has adhered to the Constitution after they invoked Article 37 and collected 1.6 million signatures to push for change of law. He said IEBC frustrated the referendum bid since “it new it was among Cord’s agenda”.
“IEBC deliberately decided to frustrate it (bill) by claiming some signatures were not genuine...we cannot be blackmailed,” he said. On rumoured discord in Cord over the coalition’s flagbearer in next year’s polls, Raila termed the reports a creation of the media. He said Cord is united.
He said anyone one in the coalition is not restricted from running for the top job, saying the privilege is not restricted to Cord principals. “There is no big deal about this. (Senator Moses) Wetang’ula is entitled to announce his candidature, just like anybody else. These are internal affairs which we should be left to deal with,” he said.
The post Anxiety as Raila vows no let-up in anti-IEBC protests appeared first on Mediamax Network Limited.