Cord Leader Raila Odinga has termed Jubilee coalition's thanks giving service scheduled for Saturday at Afraha Stadium as “mocking the dead and the surviving victims of Post Election Violence”.
Raila said on Friday that it is unjust for President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto to assemble their political supporters to celebrate the end of the pursuit of justice over the atrocities of the mayhem in 2007/2008.
He said the only picture that comes to mind is that of the President and his Deputy leading a procession of Jubilee followers performing the ‘danse macabre’ over the graves of their fellow county men.
“What Uhuru and Ruto should be doing is keeping their jubilation in check and thinking of the pain that abounds in the country. There is pain over continued lack of justice for the hundreds of young Kenyans shot in their backs as they ran away from the steaming barrels of AK47’s.”
“The children who helplessly watched their mother’s being beaten and raped are hurting. The thousands whose homes, property and places of worship were incinerated beyond imagination remain pained. That elderly father who had to identify his son’s maimed body from a sea of blanket covered corpses, the young girl who discovered her mothers body lying in a pool of blood as stray bullets tore through their “mabati” home, striking her mother in the chest all remain in pain,” the ODM leader said.
Raila added that Kenya does not need a self-absorbed jamboree hosted by the Presidency, but a genuine engagement to pursue truth, justice and reconciliation.
“Uhuru and Ruto must cease this continued mockery of the victims of the Post Election Violence and lead this nation towards the truth and reconciliation that will save us from what is quickly becoming an irreversible descent towards another orgy of violence,” he said.
Raila challenged Uhuru to make public evidence he said The National Intelligence Service (NIS) availed to the ICC that fueled the case against Ruto.
“The National Intelligence Service provided a lot of evidence that ICC cases were riding on, and in particular what is now known as the confidential Exhibit 19 and 19A of the Waki Report. These are the exhibits that were compiled by then Director General of NIS as evidence against Ruto and other ODM members. The President must now make these exhibits public if he is serious about truth and reconciliation,” he said.
“The President should open up the envelope and let the people deal with the ICC ghosts and exorcise them from their national psyche. Similarly, the police must come out openly regarding their operations in the 2007/2008 period. We need to know how they ended up shooting close to the declared 500 people,” he added.
He also called for publication of the list of people who died and those who were injured during the infamous post-poll skirmishes.
He also asked the President to make public how much money was given to the victims of the PEV and their families. He said this will fast-track reconciliation over the PEV.
“We need truth and reconciliation in the whole country. The President must now publish the list of all the people who died in the Post-Election Violence, those who were injured and those who were displaced. He must also publish what reparations his government has given to each of them,” he said.