‘Dawa Ya Moto Ni Moto! Tunakuja Statehouse sasa!’: Raila Announces Nationwide Protests To Resume
The anti-government protests that Raila Odinga, the leader of the Azimio La Umoja Coalition Party, called off earlier this month will start up again in a week.
Speaking on Thursday during a town hall meeting at Ufungamano House in Nairobi, Odinga said he will announce the date for the resumption of the protests after the end of the Ramadhan season.
The opposition leader noted that the protests will happen concurrently with the bipartisan engagement with the government, which he insists must put the public’s interest first.
“We will engage in the bipartisan process to which we have sent very able and capable representatives. But the people must not be left out or behind. We are not going into this dialogue for deals in smoke-filled rooms. We are going into this to secure and safeguard fundamental life and death gains for the people and country,” said Odinga.
He added: “We will confront Goliath and we know what will happen to Goliath. We have allowed the talks to continue, but I also agree with your proposal that the talks continue concurrently with the demonstrations. Dawa ya moto ni moto. Sisi tutaendelea. Tunangoja Ramadhan iishe… Ramadhan ikiisha tutatangaza.”
Odinga reiterated his stance that the bipartisan engagement should not exclusively happen in Parliament as insisted by President William Ruto. He once again referred to the Koffi Annan-led talks that birthed the National Accord of 2008, noting that the outcome of the process was ratified despite happening in a hotel and not Parliament.
“No one actually stops a dialogue outside parliament. In fact, we have had this before. When we are in a crisis, we had talks held at Serena Hotel chaired by even a foreigner. Those talks were not considered to be illegal or unconstitutional. In the end, the product was taken to Parliament and approved unanimously by members of Parliament. We are in a similar situation here today,” said Odinga.
He accused the President Ruto-led government of being a “rubberstamp” administration that okays anything and everything without considering the repercussions.
“Something fundamental must give this time round but only if the people stay engaged. We are not going into this to be rubber stamps. One of the things that have clearly been on display for the past six months is that Kenya Kwanza is a regime of rubberstamps.”
“Subsidies are being removed from food, fuel, electricity, and school fees, exposing people to suffering and Kenya Kwanza rubberstamps it as okay. They know there was an order for the opening of the IEBC servers but they rubberstamp as okay the refusal to open the servers. They know the buying of MPs to switch sides undermines our hard-won democracy but they rubberstamp it as okay,” said Odinga.
He added: “People are being appointed and sacked from the civil service on tribal lines and Kenya kwanza rubberstamps it as okay.”
The Thursday town hall meeting was attended by a host of Azimio leaders among the Martha Karua and Euguene Wamalwa.
Following the cessation of anti-government demonstrations, the Azimio coalition announced on Tuesday this week that it would start organizing public barazas and town hall meetings across the nation.
Chairman of the Azimio Executive Council Wycliffe Oparanya said the forums will provide an opportunity for the coalition to explain to Kenyans their next course of action in regard to the issues affecting the country.
