By Juma Kwayera
Saturday, July 12th 2014
Kenya: It has now emerged that CORD’s switch from mass action to a referendum in its campaign to force President Uhuru Kenyatta to agree to hold a national dialogue was an eleventh-hour decision by the Opposition’s co-principals as they headed to Uhuru Park for the much-hyped Saba Saba rally.
Early Monday morning, CORD convened a meeting at Crowne Plaza Hotel in Upper Hill area, Nairobi to refine its 13-point proposal and it was at this meeting that the referendum proposal was adopted and the “people power” option dropped.
Even some speakers at the Monday rally learnt of the 13-point demand when Kakamega Senator Bonny Khalwale read them out to the crowd at Uhuru Park. It is a scenario Ugunja MP James Wandayi admitted in a television interview.
Without giving specifics, Mr Wandayi said some declarations in the 13-point reforms plan were proposed earlier in the day and most CORD legislators were not aware of them. Leaders of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), Ford Kenya and Wiper parties say they were forced into a last minute-change of strategy to avoid bloodshed. They claimed the government would have taken advantage of a chaotic situation to arrest opposition leaders and accuse them of incite their supporters to violence.
Homa Bay Senator Otieno Kajwang explains that a strategy of mass action is laden with risks of trigger-happy police taking advantage to kill innocent protesters.
CORD’S threat to mobilise a million people to march to State House to present a petition to President Uhuru after he scoffed at the demands for a national dialogue to address challenges facing the nation, somewhat sent the governing elite into a panic that was dominated by warnings of a plot by the opposition to overthrow the government.
“We have changed our approach. No leader who respects himself would lead his supporters into a hail of bullets. It would be the height of irresponsibility. You do not allow people to be murdered,” he says in defence of CORD’s perceived failure to push the government to the wall.
The senator explains that Raila’s statement to Jubilee to be ready ‘kunyolewa bila maji’ (a Kiswahili idiom for tough test) had placed Jubilee on red alert with talk of a plot to overthrow President Uhuru dominating government discourse. Kajwang says Lenku’s warning to Raila that he had crossed the red line in the manner he was demanding national dialogue attests to this.
“We’re mindful that such an impression would have given CORD a bad name internationally. Jubilee fears a revolution, but we are for a constitutional way of changing the way we do things as a nation,” he says.
Jubilee Senate Majority Leader Kithure Kindiki dismissed the claims as unfounded saying the heavy security presence last Monday was as result of CORD’s request.
“For CORD to say they opted to go the referendum way to avoid bloodshed is not true. What they are not saying is that they did not have an agenda that would appeal to their supporters,” Tharaka-Nithi County Senator Kithure Kindiki says.
Early Monday morning, CORD convened a meeting at Crowne Plaza Hotel in Upper Hill area, Nairobi to refine its 13-point proposal and it was at this meeting that the referendum proposal was adopted and the “people power” option dropped.
Even some speakers at the Monday rally learnt of the 13-point demand when Kakamega Senator Bonny Khalwale read them out to the crowd at Uhuru Park. It is a scenario Ugunja MP James Wandayi admitted in a television interview.
Without giving specifics, Mr Wandayi said some declarations in the 13-point reforms plan were proposed earlier in the day and most CORD legislators were not aware of them. Leaders of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), Ford Kenya and Wiper parties say they were forced into a last minute-change of strategy to avoid bloodshed. They claimed the government would have taken advantage of a chaotic situation to arrest opposition leaders and accuse them of incite their supporters to violence.
Homa Bay Senator Otieno Kajwang explains that a strategy of mass action is laden with risks of trigger-happy police taking advantage to kill innocent protesters.
CORD’S threat to mobilise a million people to march to State House to present a petition to President Uhuru after he scoffed at the demands for a national dialogue to address challenges facing the nation, somewhat sent the governing elite into a panic that was dominated by warnings of a plot by the opposition to overthrow the government.
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Mr Kajwang claims the court order issued by Justice Isaac Lenaola warning them against mass action is confirmation of these fears. The order was, however, overturned.“We’re mindful that such an impression would have given CORD a bad name internationally. Jubilee fears a revolution, but we are for a constitutional way of changing the way we do things as a nation,” he says.
Jubilee Senate Majority Leader Kithure Kindiki dismissed the claims as unfounded saying the heavy security presence last Monday was as result of CORD’s request.
“For CORD to say they opted to go the referendum way to avoid bloodshed is not true. What they are not saying is that they did not have an agenda that would appeal to their supporters,” Tharaka-Nithi County Senator Kithure Kindiki says.
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