Rebels during Sierra Leone War. [Photo/ BBC]
When Raila Odinga announced a new National Resistance Movement( NRM) as the new arm of his party which would spearhead the struggle to ' liberate the country', anxiety increased amongst Kenyans that a new era of armed struggle had arrived in the once peaceful nation. Efforts by NASA to explain the nature of the new movement could not be easily understood by ordinarily Kenyans who were gripped by fear.
All they knew is that they had a new Joseph Kony in Raila! The question remains: What is the nature of Raila's movement?
Further still, one may ask: What are the objectives of the new resistance movement? Raila provided a clue to answers to these questions at a press conference at Okoa Kenya Headquarters by noting that the NRM is:
1) a wing of the NASA movement and not a rebel movement as feared;
2) that NRM will be responsible for spearheading economic boycott initiatives;
3) that NRM will lead picketing initiatives, and;
4) that NRM will mobilize masses for the People's Assemblies. Raila also noted that the second offshoot of the struggle will be the People's Assemblies which would work to take power to the people directly.
The composition of this Assembly would be workers, civil society, religious leaders, youth amongst other civil-based societies. From the foregoing, it would then be apt to conclude that NASA does not contemplate armed resistance in their struggle.
They seem to have modeled their struggle from India's model of passive resistance through boycott and economic sabotage of organizations deemed as being sympathetic to the regime. Whether Raila will succeed in this new front of struggle is a subject of another day. It should, however, be clear that this move will have severe consequences for Kenya's fledgling economy.