Azimio PG meeting ends in chaos as youths stop Kalonzo Musyoka presser
Wiper Party leader Kalonzo Musyoka addressing journalists during a past Azimio la Umoja One Coalition party presser in Nairobi.
The Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition Parliamentary Group (PG) meeting ended in disarray on Wednesday, July 17, after youths disrupted a press conference just as Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka had begun to read out resolutions.
Azimio leader Raila Odinga had just excused himself for an "important meeting", leaving Mr Musyoka to read the statement.
When he got to the podium, Mr Musyoka relayed Mr Odinga's apology, saying he had excused himself for an "important meeting".
Curiously, other senior ODM leaders, including Mr Odinga's deputies Hassan Joho and Wycliffe Oparanya, did not accompany Mr Musyoka to the press conference.
No sooner had the Wiper leader started reading out the statement on the PG resolutions than the youths who had gathered at the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Foundation, the venue of the meeting, stormed the tents and ejected him and other leaders.
The statement was categorical that the coalition "will not be part of the proposed broad-based government or any other government with the Kenya Kwanza Coalition".
Broad-based government
President William Ruto has vouched for a "broad-based government", akin to a government of national unity, to which some ODM party members appear to be warming.
Earlier, the ODM party held its joint National Executive Committee and PG meeting at the same venue and endorsed a national dialogue to steer the country out of the current political crisis.
"The meeting endorsed the call by the party's Central Committee at its meeting on Friday, July 12, 2024, for a National Convention/Conversation that would bring together all the people of Kenya," read a statement by ODM Secretary General Edwin Sifuna.
The meeting reiterated the need for this convention to be all-inclusive, people-centred and constitutional.
National Convention
The meeting also endorsed the position of the Central Management Committee that certain pre-conditions must be met before the National Convention in order to create a conducive environment for the National Convention.
These include compensation for all victims of police brutality during protests since last year, the arrest of rogue officers involved in these incidents, a national amnesty for all those arrested/abducted and the interdiction of Nairobi Area Police boss Adamson Bungei, among others.
In the Azimio statement seen by the Nation which Mr Musyoka began reading, the meeting "considered the need for a people-driven National Constitutional Convention as a possible way out of the national crisis, subject to the consensus and agreement of other stakeholders".
The coalition called for the arrest of the rogue officers responsible for the shooting, maiming and killing of peaceful demonstrators.
The immediate interdiction of senior police officers who presided over the atrocities the unconditional release of all abducted Kenyans and an immediate end to abductions.
The coalition also demanded that the government compensate all those killed by rogue officers during last year's protests and the ongoing protests.
"We demand that the government pay all the hospital bills of the victims of police shootings," the unsigned statement said.
