President Uhuru Kenyatta should stop mocking the opposition over demands for electoral reforms, Amani leader Musalia Mudavadi has said.
President Uhuru Kenyatta in an apparent reference to Cord co-principles Raila Odinga, Kalonzo Musyoka and Moses Wetang’ula said in Mandera last Thursday that it is wrong for “some elders to sit on the tarmac and expose the youth to teargas”.
The trio has been leading anti-IEBC protests, camping outside the commission headquarters at Anniversary Towers on Mondays and the coalition said it will continue demonstrating every Monday until the officials leave office.
Mudavadi warned that the matter may lead to “turbulence” if the President does not take it seriously.
The ANC leader accused the President of absconding duty as the Head of State and failing to take charge.
He urged Uhuru not to hide under the constitution and abscond his duty to guide Kenya out of the impending electoral crisis.
“The demand for electoral reforms is a Kenyan people’s desire and the President is duty bound to mediate the process rather than cynically mock the opposition from the fence,” Mudavadi said.
“It was unfortunate for the President to say he can do nothing while in Mandera. Nobody is asking him to order anyone around or usurp any powers. The President is saying he will do nothing if a catastrophe were to befall the country. That is dereliction of duty. The President needs to take this matter seriously otherwise it will end in turbulence.”
Mudavadi told NTV Live news programme last Thursday that the Jubilee stance is petty.
“All their pronouncements are tinted in mockery and taunts about following the law yet they know they control the levers of power to initiate reforms through their majority in Parliament,” he said.
The ANC leader said the right forum is a dialogue at the political level to find a solution to the impasse.
“What has talking to us got to do with the law? What ties his hands in talking about electoral reform?” he asked.
Mudavadi reiterated that though he does not condone hooliganism, the right to protest is institutionalised and the role of the police is to protect both protesters and property owners, but not to brutally beat up protesters.
“Police should not confuse the right to protest with containing riots. In protests, the police's duty is to guide protesters to avoid infiltration of violence. Beating anyone who shouts or passes by a demo is premeditated violence by the police,” he said.
In a wide-ranging “Mudavadi Speaks” interview, Mudavadi condemned attempts to herd Kenyans into a two-horse race between Jubilee and Cord.
This will be counterproductive and undermine the right of Kenyans to participate freely in elections, he said.
“We are conditioning Kenyans to choose between these fictions of a two-horse race, whose result undermines the commitment to build a multiparty state. The media should not join this bandwagon,” Mudavadi said.
The former Deputy Prime Minister said Kenyans desire for change should not be fixated with these extremes because "there is ANC”.
“It’s like saying only by being Catholic or Anglican can you be a Christian. What about the Salvation Army, Pentecostal and Quakers?”