- Azimio leader Raila Odinga who was present at the function said that the dead and survivors were victims of “planned wanton killings of our people”.
- The Azimio coalition promised to take care of funeral costs and try and compensate the affected families.
Azimio La Umoja coalition on Friday claimed at least 60 people were killed by police during the anti-government protests countrywide.
Minority leader in the National Assembly Opiyo Wandayi read some of the names during a requiem mass in honour of five victims of alleged police brutality in Kisumu.
Among the people named by Wanday are Moses Otieno from Ugenya, Douglas Kalsinga (Lugari), George Morgan (Ikolomani), John Okoth (Alego) and Robert Ouko (Suna East).
Others were John Benjamin (Luanda), John Ochieng (Ugunja), Austine Otieno (Ugunja), David Omondi (gem), Moses Onyango (Kendu Bay), Stephen Ochieng (Suna East), Eliam oduor (Ugenya), Richard Mutuku (Baringo) and Bob Abott (Nyakach).
Jack Ogana (Homa Bay), Reagan Otieno (Suna East), Fredrick Omonyo (Suna East), Edwin Omondi (Rarieda), Ravid Agan (Gem), Sylvester Owino (Gem), Walter Awuonda (Kisumu Central) and Frank Opiyo (Seme) were also amongst the many other in the list read out by Wandayi.
Azimio leader Raila Odinga who was present at the function said that the dead and survivors were victims of “planned wanton killings of our people”.
The Azimio coalition promised to take care of funeral costs and try and compensate the affected families.
Raila said that the political outfit remains undeterred even when faced with State-backed police brutality.
The opposition supremo said that moving forward, the coalition will adopt a non-violent method of civil disobedience if the cost of living does not come down and electoral justice is not served.
He averred that the police have in the past used assault weapons to disperse peaceful anti-government protestors leading to the death of many young innocent lives.
“There are different ways of killing a cat. Next time we will tell the people to stay at home. We will definitely kill the cat (contextually used to mean bringing down an oppressive regime),” Raila said.
Raila asserted that the current regime has receded to a colonial-like approach to leadership; leading to the torture and death of innocent Kenyans.
The young men who were allegedly killed by the police, have gone down as heroes of the third liberation struggle, Raila said.
The next phase of the opposition politics will also take a multi-pronged approach to clamour for the fall of the allegedly oppressive President William Ruto-led regime, Raila explained.
The multi-faceted approach, Raila said, will include suing key government officials at the International Criminal Court (ICC) and forming their own country.
“I have looked and seen what is going on very well. We go to elections but our votes are always stolen. Sovereignty belongs to the people and we will opt for self-determination,” Raila told the mourners.
He explained that the signatures that the opposition is currently collecting, once they hit 10 million, will be used to show that the majority of Kenyans voted for the opposition and it was rigged.
Already, Raila reported, that some 8.9 million Kenyan voters have appended their signatures in support of the initiative.
The figure, he said, is already huge than the 7.2 million votes that the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) used to declare Ruto president in August 2022.
"The other method is to head to the ICC and sue President Ruto, Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, Interior Cabinet Secretary KIthure Kindiki and the Inspector General of Police Japhet Koome with a “charge of criminal liable,” said Siaya County Governor James Orengo.
The senior counsel indicated that he is ready to put on hold his duties as the governor of Siaya and sit down with his fellow lawyers to draft a case against the quartet.
“Nobody is above the law. Koome and others who kill our people must answer to the charge of criminal liability,” he said.
But Raila doubted the independence of the ICC saying that the court’s chief prosecutor Kharim Khan has lately been in Kenya dining and wining with government honchos.
“We are saddened to see that the diplomatic community in Kenya is silent (about the violation of human rights and Khan’s dalliance with the government). We would like them to come out strong on this issue,” Raila said.
Raila’s deputy Martha Karua condemned Koome’s recent assertion that the opposition had hired bodies from mortuaries to parade and claim that they were killed by the police.
“It is wrong for him to laugh at us when we are in mourning. Perhaps Ruto wants us to know that things happen when he coughs. We must negotiate under the law, not the whims of Ruto,” Karua said.
Wiper party leader Kalonzo Musyoka regretted the actions of the police saying that Article 243 of the Constitution of Kenya reformed the police from a force into a police service.
Kalonzo, who leads Azimio’s faction of the bi-partisan talks with the government, said that the matter of police brutality is weightier and will not form part of the dialogue’s agenda.
“Koome does not qualify to be the inspector general of police since he has acted in contravention of Article 245 of the Constitution 2010,” Kalonzo added.
Homa Bay County governor Gladys Wanga insisted that “Luo Lives Matter” after it turned out that the majority of the deceased and wounded were of ethnic Luo.
Alego Usonga MP Samuel Atandi likened the killings to genocide.
Embattled Jubilee Party Secretary General Jeremiah Kioni claimed that the current regime has gone rogue even as the former defence minister Eugene Wamalwa asserted that “the men in uniform have turned into brutish beats”.
Suba North MP Millie Odhiambo, her Rangwe counterpart Lilian Gogo and Roots party leader George Wajackoya mourned the departed even as they vented their anger by insulting the genitalia of killers.
“We cannot talk of peace without justice. You cannot annihilate a people. If Kenya is for shareholders (according to DP Gachagua) then we will insist on self-determination (forming our own country),” said Rarieda lawmaker Otiende Amolo.
Legislators Opondo Kaluma (Homa Bay Town), Oburu Oginga, Christine Ombaka (Siaya), Joshua Oron (Kisumu Central), Rosa Buyu (Kisumu West), and Siaya Assembly Speaker George Okode also attended the requiem mass.
Kenya Human Rights Commission deputy director Cornelius Oduor assured the families of victims that they are in solidarity with them and that the commission is compiling a list to institute criminal proceedings against the perpetrators.