The Azimio la Umoja One Kenya coalition has asserted that the plan to hold anti-government protests from Wednesday to Friday is still on despite stern warnings from the government.
Speaking at the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Foundation (JOOF) on Monday, National Assembly Minority Leader Opiyo Wandayi stated that they will not cower from exercising their constitutional mandate of holding peaceful protests.
The Ugunja MP argued that no authority can bar them from holding the planned protests, be it President William Ruto or any institution.
“The peaceful protests planned for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week are on as earlier declared by our leaders. These protests will go on in line with Article 37 of our Constitution which provides for freedom of peaceful assembly and picketing and no authority has got the power to suspend the operations of Article 37, no person, authority, agency, not William Ruto, Kithure Kindiki, not Rigathi Gachagua,” he said.
“No person and anybody purporting to stop demonstrations is deluding themselves because they have no power.”
At the same time, he said that the signature collection drive to oust President Ruto is still on course and it will happen simultaneously with the protests.
“We can also confirm that the signature collection is going on and it will proceed side by side with the protests. This exercise is also protected under Article 1 of our Constitution,” he said.
As of July 11, Azimio la Umoja leader Raila Odinga stated that the drive had fetched over 1.2 million stamps.
Taking a swipe at the government, Wandayi demanded that Ruto should resign and admit failure of their policies and “pave way for a regime which has solutions”.
He argued that the state has lost touch with its citizens, more reason why citizens are protesting across the nation.
“We are shocked at how fast Kenya Kwanza has lost contact with the people and how they don’t understand what Kenyans are going through,” he said.
“Kenya Kwanza claims that the protests are not about the cost of living. In their view, the cost of living is not so high as to warrant protests that is how a regime that has abandoned people’s agenda thinks.”
“If Kenya Kwanza’s solutions are not working for the people then they need to get out of power, just disband and quit.”
President Ruto earlier cautioned Odinga against proceeding with planned demonstrations, saying the government will take him head-on if he does.
He also fired a direct warning shot at his predecessor Uhuru Kenyatta over his alleged continuous association with Odinga, alleging that he has secretly been funding the anti-government protests.
Ruto warned that while staging a protest is a right enshrined in the Constitution, the full weight of the country’s security apparatus and legal system will be thrust upon Odinga if more bloodshed is witnessed in the process.
He also vowed to conclusively deal with Odinga politically, once and for all, and ensure that he firmly retires to his home in Bondo.
