Cabinet Secretary for Defence Aden Duale has bashed the opposition over claims to collect signatures to remove President William Ruto from office.
In a statement, Duale referred to the signatures collection as a bluff.
He noted that the collection of signatures has no constitutional bearing.
“The Constitution provides clearly for the procedure for removal of the President and Deputy President under Articles 145 and 150 respectively which is through an impeachment legislative process with clearly defined constitutional grounds for removal,” Duale said on Sunday.
The former Garissa Township MP further highlighted that Article 1(3) of the Constitution provides that sovereign power is delegated and exercised through Parliament, the Executive and the Judiciary.
“One cannot choose or purport to state that they have decided to exercise power directly as this would be tantamount to negating Article 1(3) of the Constitution and assuming the three arms of government do not exist,” Duale added.
The CS was reacting to Azimio la Umoja – One Kenya coalition leader Raila Odinga who launched a signature collection campaign on Friday. The aim, the opposition supremo said, is to remove President William Ruto from office.
Addressing a Saba Saba rally at Kamukunji Grounds in Nairobi, the former prime minister said the coalition targets 10 million signatures by next Friday, July 14, 2023.
The decision, Raila says, was necessitated by the government’s failure to address the opposition’s grievances including punitive taxes, high cost of living, electoral fraud and biased recruitment of electoral commissioners.
Similar rallies to historically mirror the Saba Saba Day were staged in various parts of the country including Kisumu, Mombasa, Kisii, Kakamega, Kirinyaga, Machakos and Nyahururu.
Various Azimio leaders were deployed to lead protests at the grassroots.
