Opposition chief Raila Odinga. Photo/nasa-news.com
Opposition leader Raila Odinga has claimed again that police officers and members of the Kenya Defence Force (KDF) are being trained to work as polling clerks on August 8 to rig the election in favour of President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Raila who spoke at his Capitol Hill office in Nairobi on Thursday claimed some military officers have already undergone training and were awaiting for the final induction before being deployed on polling day.
He made the remarks three weeks after issuing demands to the IEBC to assure Kenyans that the August election would be free, fair and transparent.
“The officers have been asked to report to the police headquarters to be issued with discharge certificates on or before July 2, 2017,” Raila said.
“In short the officers’ identification cards have been drawn. These officers have been picked from the various police formations including the GSU, Kenya Airport police unit, traffic and dog unit among others across the country.”
“A similar thing has been done in the National Intelligence Service. The officers have been withdrawn and deployed as election officials.”
He said a similar development had happened in the run-up to the 2013 general election in which he lost to Uhuru Kenyatta.
On July 3, Raila made similar claims accusing the Jubilee administration of forcing their leadership on Kenyans.
He said the trained officers will be deployed as polling clerks “with instruction on how to behave on voting day”.
Government spokesperson Erick Kiraithe dismissed Raila’s claims saying: “KDF are innocent of any politics. Whenever Raila is having political campaigns, security officers are deployed to ensure security. It is irresponsible to say the military is in Kakamega to rig elections.”
Raila has earlier on said KDF soldiers being trained to work as polling clerks were being trained in Kakamega.