NASA Presidential candidate Raila Odinga. [Photo/ Daily Monitor]
Kenyans largely rejected Raila Odinga’s call to stage anti-IEBC demonstrations in Nairobi on Tuesday, forcing even the ODM leader to stay away from plans to disrupt normal operations in the central business district. Raila, the National Super Alliance (NASA) presidential candidate who lost to President Uhuru Kenyatta by more than 1.4 million votes in last month’s general election, had called on his supporters from across the country to join him in forcefully ejecting IEBC CEO Ezra Chiloba out of office. Chiloba, who was not found guilty — as other commission officials — of any wrongdoing by the Supreme Court, is among 11 officials Raila wants to unlawfully remove from office before the October 26 repeat polls in a move meant to cripple IEBC's ability to deliver. After seemingly running out of ways to force out the 39-year-old, Raila appears keen to use violence to send the former UN staffer home. But Kenyans, who are getting used to Raila using them to remove election officials who he blames every time he loses an election, went about their business as usual. This forced the former Langata MP to avoid the demos altogether, leaving only a few paid youths to engage police in running battles near Anniversary Towers, where the IEBC offices are based. Because of the tension caused about by politics in the last two months, many businesses are performing poorly, leading to a massive decline in revenue collection by the national government — by Sh40 billion less, according to the Treasury. Between July and August, receipts from the Treasury show, revenue collected hit Sh251 billion, down from the Sh291.8 billion collected over the same period last year. If Raila continues with his selfish ambitions to hold the country hostage, the economy is likely to suffer further. But the fact that Kenyans are standing up to him means that he is alone on the path to destroy the welfare of Kenyans. In the aftermath of the 2007/08 elections, in which Raila’s call for mass action led to nearly two months of bloodletting, Kenya’s economy, which had been growing steadily before the elections, took a heavy hit and went through many turbulent periods before recording positive growth again. Raila must never be allowed to take the country to the old dark days.