Why Post-Election Violence Victims Could Camp at Raila’s House

A segment of the 2007-2008 post-election violence victims has threatened to camp at the homes of CORD leader Raila Odinga and his co-principals Moses Wetangula and Kalonzo Musyoka.

The group has issued a seven-day notice to the Opposition asking it to stop the protests against the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), failure to which they will parade outside the coalition leaders houses.

Speaking in Naivasha on Friday, the group coordinator Esther Namulanda said similar demonstrations led to the skirmishes and deaths that were witnessed in 2007.

“We inform the Cord leadership that we will exercise our rights to protest and we shall mobilize our colleagues and picket outside the homes of Raila, Kalonzo and Wetangula,” Mrs Namulanda quoted by the Star.

She urged the Opposition to use the constitution in disbanding the IEBC instead of demonstrating on the streets.

“We are asking the politicians, whom we pay a lot of money, to deal with their issues in parliament and not in the streets,” she said.

She reminded the country that 1,300 lives were lost and 600,000 displaced during the skirmishes in 2007. She concluded by saying they feared chaos could be looming in the 2017 elections if the opposition persisted with demonstrations.

CORD has been holding demonstrations for the last three weeks demanding the removal of IEBC commissioners, claiming the commission cannot hold a free and fair election.

The coalition leaders have insisted that they do not have confidence in taking the matter to Parliament noting that Jubilee could use its numbers to shoot down the motion.

President Uhuru Kenyatta has, however, asked the Opposition to use the legal process in disbanding the electoral body adding that street protests would not help.