“I, Raila Omolo Odinga, do swear that I will protect the nation as people’s president, so help me God.” With these words, Kenya’s opposition leader, Raila Odinga, holding a bible, swore himself in as People’s president to the cheers of more than 15,000 people in Uhuru Park, Nairobi last Tuesday.
In his brief remarks after that, Odinga declined to give details of his plans and said they would be disclosed in “due course”. Obviously, there is division within the opposition alliance as Odinga’s vice presidential candidate and two other senior leaders were absent at the event.
In swift reaction, the Kenyan government declared the new wing of the opposition coalition’s known as the National Resistance Movement, NRM, as an organised criminal group. Interior Cabinet Secretary, Fred Matiang’i, in a gazette notice released on Tuesday, outlawed the movement in line with the Prevention of Organised Crimes Act, 2010.
NRM, a wing of NASA, was formed in October 2017 on the eve of repeat presidential elections. During its launch in 2017, Odinga said NASA’s resistance wing would embark on vigorous pro-democracy campaign through economic boycotts and picketing and other legitimate forms of protests until a legitimate presidency is restored.
President Uhuru Kenyatta’s victory last August was annulled by the Supreme Court over irregularities but he won the re-run poll last October, which Odinga boycotted because some electoral commission reforms he demanded did not take place.
The incumbent leader was sworn in for a second term in November and state institutions report to him.
The attorney-general had warned that Odinga could be charged with treason if the event went ahead – an offence that can carry the death penalty.
