NASA supporters march to receive Raila Odinga after his eight-day tour of the US, November 17, 2017. [PHOTO/the-star.co.ke]
The world has today witnessed the use of unprecedented and unnecessary brutality by the Jubilee regime directed at a mass of humanity. I honour them for exercising their restraint against this brutality.
These supporters of NASA were unarmed civilians peacefully exercising their right to assembly. In a bid to bar citizens from exercising this right, the Jubilee regime used tear gas, water cannons, armed militia and live bullets to disperse supporters of the National Super Alliance, in the process killing several and maiming many.
This is a reckless, insensitive and primitive response to a crisis Uhuru Kenyatta himself has created. But it has been carefully planned by Jubilee to create an atmosphere of fear and chaos in which the Supreme Court has to make its ruling.
NASA strongly condemns what has happened today, that is becoming a pattern in our country. We hold President Uhuru Kenyatta and his illegitimate regime responsible for this absurd and unfortunate turn of events. The President has the blood of innocent Kenyans on his hands.
We condemn, equally strongly, the waste of tax-payers’ money on unnecessary war by security forces and militia against innocent and law abiding citizens by a regime that is deep in debt even as it continues to borrow massive amounts of money which is crippling the economy. Today’s use of maximum brute force confirms our fears that a dictatorship is taking root in Kenya. As citizens, we have a duty and responsibility to stop it now before the roots go too deep.
Kenyans however need to take heart that the path Uhuru is taking is a beaten one. It is the same path that was taken by Yaya Jameh in the Gambia, Blaise Compaore in Burkina Faso, Laurent Gbagbo in Ivory Coast, Faure Gnassingbe in Togo and now Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe. The results here will not be different.
NASA thanks all Kenyans who stood up today to bravely tell President Kenyatta and his desperate regime that they will neither surrender their right to freedom nor give up their quest for a legitimate and popular government resulting from free, fair and credible elections.
Kenyans are aware that to establish a dictatorship, all that a regime needs is a brutal police and a cowed citizenry. They are refusing to be cowed.
Kenyans are sending a clear message to President Uhuru Kenyatta and all backers of his illegitimate hold on to power that autocracy and stolen elections cannot deliver stability. We are sending a message to Uhuru and his backers that they are staring at an uneasy calm before the storm. A third Republic is at hand and no amount of violence, intimidation and theft of elections will deter Kenyans from realizing their dream of a government that has their popular mandate. As Kenyans, we have been here before. We shall overcome. As before, peacefully.