Opposition leader Raila Odinga and his CORD party on Wednesday May 25, 2016 called off the ongoing protests seeking to forcefully eject IEBC commissioners from office after being pressurised, it has emerged.
The diplomatic community as well as various religious groups advised the decision to put off the weekly protests that had been scheduled for Mondays.
Raila and other CORD leaders had apparently been involved in “high-level diplomatic negotiations”, and held several internal discussions that led to the decision to suspend the demos.
The opposition chiefs saw the move as extending an olive branch to President Uhuru Kenyatta and the ruling Jubilee team, to discuss replacement of IEBC commissioners and other issues they view will level the playing field and ensure a free and fair election come 2017.
“Initially, we saw the international community as indifferent but when its envoys in Kenya released a statement pushing for dialogue, then the Church joined in with the offer to facilitate the talks, our leaders decided to retreat and see if Uhuru will embrace and kick-start the talks,’’ a CORD insider was quoted in the report.
The leaders also wanted to show solidarity with families of their supporters who were bereaved and others wounded as a result of the protests in Nyanza last Monday May 23 that turned violent.
CORD said that the suspension of the demos was temporary, and that if the government failed to engage them in ten days, they would take to the streets again after June 5.
Right before the announcement to put off the demos made by CORD’s senators James Orengo and Johnson Muthama during a press briefing, Raila had said in an interview with Voice of America (VOA) that CORD will not retreat from it’s push to see loopholes that may allow for rigging in the 2017 polls are sealed.
“The current government, and by extension, the ruling Jubilee coalition, must sit down for constructive dialogue. They have no choice. They will have to agree to sit down and negotiate. So we will continue for as long as it takes. We will not surrender. That is not an option,” Raila had said in the interview.
Jubilee has however, not responded to the opposition.