Inauguration chaos false alarm, say Cord leaders

Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo addresses a press conference in Nairobi on March 29, 2013. He is flanked by Samuel Arachi. 

PHOTO / ANN KAMONI 

By VINCENT AGOYA 

 

vagoya@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Monday, April 8  2013

In Summary

• Politicians ask police chief to verify source of intelligence first

Cord MPs on Monday hit out at the Inspector General of Police accusing him of creating “false alarms” over planned demos in Nairobi during President-elect Uhuru Kenyatta’s swearing -in ceremony.

Mr T.J. Kajwang’ (Ruaraka), Mr Irshad Sumra (Embakasi South), Mr Kenneth Okoth (Kibra) and Mr Paul Simba Arati (Dagoretti North) asked the police boss to desist from making claims calculated to tarnish names of individuals and portray negatively communities perceived not to support the new President.

They said Mr David Kimaiyo and his spokesperson Masoud Munyi were targeting individuals in their respective constituencies under the guise of “security preparedness.”

“We know there are millions of shillings set aside for the security vote and someone has to earn it but certainly not through these alarmist and unproductive means,” Mr Kajwang’ said.

The National Assembly members were speaking at Parliament Buildings after a day-long meeting with the security chief. They had demanded to know the source(s) of information the security agents had relied on before releasing statements in the media that there were plans to disrupt the Kasarani ceremony.

Mr Kimaiyo had named four people alleged to be behind the plans to rock the city with chaos today and singled out Kawangware, Kibera, Mathare and Embakasi areas as the chaos hotspots.

“One of the persons named as having planned the chaos at his house in Mashimoni, Kibera, on Saturday left Nairobi on Wednesday and is still upcountry attending a funeral,” Mr Okoth said and asked the police to verify the sources of their information before going to the media.

The leaders accused the police of trying to intimidate and humiliate Cord supporters, resorting to creating enmity where there was none.

“Its a strategy that has been used elsewhere before,” Mr Arati said.

“Let our people not be used as scapegoats to justify the security vote, which runs into millions of shillings and of which someone must earn; we are still hurting from the results of the just concluded elections and decision of the Supreme court, but we have chosen to maintain the peace,” the leaders said.

Mr Sumra thanked all their supporters for remaining peaceful even after the Supreme Court judgement on the presidential petition.

The politicians noted that they would not be attending the swearing-in ceremony and had no plans of joining the Jubilee Coalition as they had their rightful place to keep the new government on its toes.