Opposition leader Raila Odinga yesterday said he will not allow President Uhuru Kenyatta to get away with “another stolen victory”.
Giving the clearest indication that he won’t concede defeat, the NASA leader insisted that Uhuru, who was on Friday night declared the winner of the 2017 Presidential election, “must go”.
Addressing charged rallies in Kibera and Mathare, Raila, whose fourth presidential run flopped, warned that the Jubilee administration would pay for shedding innocent blood.
“It won’t be possible for Uhuru to steal our victory again. It won’t happen and we won’t allow him to do that,” Raila proclaimed in Mathare, when he visited the area following post-election protests that have seen deaths and massive injuries.
“Uhuru uses the military to kill our people, we want to tell him that he will not get away with it,” said Raila.
But State House Spokesman Manoah Esipisu asked Kenyans to resume work and warned that police will deal with anyone engaging in illegal protests.
In a statement delivered to media, the government said the police would not tolerate breaches of the peace and will protect the lives and property of Kenyans and restore law and order.
Esipisu indicated that there are peaceful and constitutional means by which to address any grievances as those who incite violence and division will leave participating youths to suffer the consequences.
“Don’t let yourself be a pawn in someone else’s game, let the Constitution decide any disputes that remain,” read his statement.
Yesterday the Star learned that NASA is likely to release its General Election results tomorrow.
In an interview with Al Jazeera on Saturday, NASA’s Joseph Simekha from Raila’s presidential campaign secretariat said the Alliance will provide comprehensive evidence to the Kenyan public of how it won the election.
“In the coming 12 to 24 hours, NASA will now provide comprehensive evidence to the Kenyan public, from whom this election was stolen. There is evidence and IEBC has been provided with it,” he said in the interview.
Simekha said the problem was not with the process of voting, but that the election was stolen through manipulation of the system of transmission of the results.
The contested Presidential election outcome now appears to put the country on the brink of a protracted post-election crisis reminiscent of the 2007/8 catastrophe.
More than 1,300 Kenyans were killed and about 600,000 uprooted from their homes, following the disputed reelection of then President Mwai Kibaki.
Then, as now, Raila was the disputant.
Yesterday, Raila made his first public appearance since the IEBC declared and certified Uhuru the winner of the Presidential election. He urged millions of opposition supporters to prepare “for worse times ahead”.
Accompanied by dozens of NASA MPs-elect, Raila stormed Kibra, where he enjoys a fervent and loyal support base in Nairobi, and declared he was the winner of last Tuesday’s Presidential contest.
“Jubilee stole the election and they have come to kill our people. I want to tell Jubilee that they shed innocent blood and they will have to pay for the blood,” the opposition chief told hundreds of his supporters who turned up in Kamukunji grounds, Kibra.
Raila was however not accompanied by his NASA co-principals Kalonzo Musyoka, Musalia Mudavadi, Moses Wetang’ula and Isaac Rutto.
In a terse message to his distraught supporters, Raila said he will tomorrow address the nation and give the way forward on the next drastic action.
“Tomorrow [Monday] there is going to be no work. Wait until Tuesday, when I will give directions,” Raila told the supporters, who punctuated his address with cries of “Justice!’’
“A people united can never be defeated! A people united can never be defeated!” chanted the 4,000-strong crowd that thronged the grounds in the heart of Kibra.
The announcement flew in the face of efforts by the State to contain sporadic violence in Mathare, Kibra and Kisumu, where NASA protesters have been engaging police in running battles since Friday night.
After his rally in Kibra, Raila went to Mathare to visit the family of nine-year-old Moraa Nyarangi, who was shot dead by police on Saturday while standing on the balcony of the family house.
NASA has claimed that at least 100 people have been killed, 10 of them children and that police ferried the bodies away in body bags to hide the evidence.
Raila’s reception in Mathare was euphoric, as hundreds of his twig-carrying supporters rushed out and virtually jammed the shanty streets, chanting opposition slogans.
Raila said Jubilee will be defeated and removed from power.
“They will be defeated because they have come to kill our innocent people, bundling their bodies into bags,” the opposition leader had said in Kibra.
“I have come to say sorry for what happened here yesterday,” he said.
“What happened yesterday in Kibra, Mathare and other places has happened in other countries like Haiti, but the dictators were removed from power,” the former Prime Minister said.
The NASA leader said the government was executing a well-prepared pre-election plot to kill his supporters using a special squad from the military.
“What happened yesterday, we foresaw three weeks ago, when we gave a dossier of military men who had been lined up to commit atrocities,” he said.
“They planned to use the military to kill our people because they knew they would be defeated, Jubilee was defeated and must be removed from power,” Raila told his supporters.
Siaya Senator-elect James Orengo was more emphatic in his address in Kamukunji grounds, telling NASA supporters that Raila’s votes were stolen by Jubilee as he called for a boycott of the Nation Media Group newspapers and broadcasting.
As we went to press, ICT Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru hit out at NASA in a statement sent to the newsrooms, terming their boycott of NMG products irresponsible.
“Not even in the darkest days of Kenya’s political history has any leader initiated such a brazen assault on the freedom of the press,” Mucheru said. “To single out particular newspapers and TV stations for attack simply because of their opinions is not only unconstitutional, it is an assault on the very foundation upon which Kenya’s democracy is founded.”
Orengo claimed the NMG was biased in its reporting.
Orengo also took issue with international election observers, whom he accused of being biased.
“They should not come to lecture us, we know as Kenyans what to do, we voted and votes were stolen,” he said.
He said the Jubilee administration was out to murder NASA supporters.
Homa Bay woman representative-elect Gladys Wanga, a staunch Raila defender, rallied NASA supporters not to give up until justice is served.
“We know Raila was the winner, we will not eat, or rest until Raila is sworn in as President,” Wanga said.
Former university leader and Embakasi East MP-elect Babu Owino told NASA supporters that the “power of the people is stronger than the people in power”.
“If they will have their President, we will also have our President . . . we have to swear Raila Amolo Odinga in as the President, because he won the election,” Owino said.
Former Starehe parliamentary aspirant Steve Mbogo said Jubilee used the military and Mungiki to steal votes.
“We have enough evidence and we will not tolerate them until Raila is sworn in. If they want to kill us let them kill us – it is Raila who won the election,” he said.