Kenya’s opposition party - Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), has locked horns with South Africa’s Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) Party leader Julius Malema, over his criticism of its leader Raila Odinga-led anti-government protests over high cost of living.
ODM Secretary General Edwin Sifuna in a statement said Mr Malema was not familiar with the challenges facing Kenyans that forced them into the streets.
“My attention has been drawn to comments by the leader of South Africa's Economic Freedom Fighters Party, comrade Malema, asking Kenya's Azimio Coalition and ODM Party Leader, H.E. Rt Hon Raila Odinga, to "stop the protests and stop disrupting Kenya," adding that he would not “allow” Hon. Raila to “disrupt peace in Kenya."
“It is clear that comrade Malema, watching Kenya from a distance, is not familiar with the delicate sociopolitical fault lines in our nation, and makes the faulty assumption that his approach in fighting injustices in South Africa can be replicated here,” Mr Sifuna wrote.
He said that, unlike South Africa, “Kenya is largely a dictatorship falsely basking in the sun of democracy, in which nearly all elections since 2007 have been fraudulent, and where the wrong president has been sworn in each time.”
“It is a far cry from South Africa's strong multiparty democracy, where we have witnessed the ruling party even recall presidents and end their terms when they no longer represented the aspirations of South Africans,” added Mr Sifuna.
Expressing his dissatisfaction with the anti-government protests in Kenya, Mr Malema accused Mr Odinga of disrupting the country’s peace.
“We want to make a call in Kenya, especially to comrade Raila Odinga.
Stop doing what you are doing, do not disrupt Kenya. We need peace in Kenya, President William Ruto was democratically elected in Kenya. I will not allow you to use the people of Kenya to destabilise the peace in Kenya,” Mr Malema charged in a video clip that has gone viral on social media.
But Mr Sifuna pointed out that Mr Malema’s EFF party, as a far-left movement for the economic emancipation of South Africans from decades of oppression, has more in common with the Azimio coalition and ODM party “than with the current far-right and oppressive capitalistic regime in Kenya.”
“Indeed, if comrade Malema had bothered to look beyond the Kenya Kwanza regime propaganda, he would know that the recent protests in Kenya were against obscenely high taxes, the rising cost of living and government refusal to listen to the people.”
“I have no doubt that if Malema was Kenyan, his red army would have joined us in their numbers on the streets, similar to what they recently did in South Africa,” the ODM official said.
He stated that neocolonialism perpetuated by dictators, who were never in the liberation struggle, is ravaging Africa, hence it behoves modern-day liberation forces to speak with one voice against new apartheid and colonialism practised by “our own black rulers.”
“As the ODM Party SG, I extend an invitation to comrade Malema to visit Kenya, so that I can personally take him on a tour of our country so that he understands that we fight for the same things he does.”
“In fact, Kenya's own quest for a people-driven constitutional framework has always looked up to South Africa's strong party foundations and structures to dilute our oppressive winner-take-all presidential system,” said the Nairobi Senator.
Mr Malema’s criticism of Mr Odinga, other ODM sources said, was a result of the former Prime Minister’s camaraderie and links with his bitter rival, South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa.
