Orange Democratic Movement party leader Raila Odinga has said Deputy President William Ruto has sensed defeat in the presidential election and that is why he is accusing him of instigating chaos at UDA campaign meetings.
Speaking at City Hall in Nairobi Tuesday, Mr Odinga denied the accusations that ODM was disrupting UDA meetings, saying none of his supporters caused the violence.
“There are people saying … ODM supporters threw stones to disrupt their meetings. We want to say none of them did that, and none of our people have thrown stones to disrupt any ongoing meetings. We will face them and beat them with votes. They have seen a tsunami coming and that is why they have become like a monkey that is seated on a tree seeing the wind coming. I want to tell them to wait; we will deal with them face to face,” Mr Odinga said.
Speaking during the launch of his voter registration drive in Nairobi, the ODM leader urged Kenyans to come out and register as voters to have the power to vote in their leaders. He promised to facilitate the process.
“There is no sleeping. Every morning, get up early and go there to register, and even the IEBC wants to work till night time,” he said.
Mr Odinga further noted that his Azimio la Umoja movement had the upper hand in Nairobi, and intends to add a million voters.
“In 2017, here in Nairobi, I got over 900,000 votes and Uhuru got over 700,000. If you add the two, you get around 1.6 million votes. We want that number to get to over two million.
“That is why I don't want you to take 400,000 or 500,000 votes. I want you to push it to around one million," he added.
The ODM leader’s statement comes after the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) officially launched the second mass voter registration drive on Monday, to run until February 6, after a similar one in October achieved just 25 per cent of the six million new voters that the agency targeted to register.
The commission, however, attributed the low numbers to a disinterested youth population that does not see voting as important. This presents a big challenge to political parties because the youth constitute a big part of their target voters.
On his continuing tour of Nairobi County yesterday, the DP hit out at Mr Odinga’s camp over alleged violence at his campaigns.
“Our competitors have been preoccupied with selling to us threats, blackmail and intimidation. I want to tell them, you have done it for four years, you have not succeeded and you are not about to succeed even now,” the DP said at Karen shopping centre in Lang’ata Constituency.
He went on: “We will not buy fear and take your threats and intimidation because we are determined as a people to change the destiny of our nation and we know together, united, we will change this nation for the better and good of everybody, where no citizen is left behind.”
In an apparent reference to his Sunday rally at Jacaranda grounds in Embakasi East Constituency, Dr Ruto told Mr Odinga to rein in his troops “to stop violence, stop stone-throwing and unnecessary fights”.
“We are peaceful people. Sell your policies. Kenyans are intelligent and know what policies are better than the others and will make a decision.”
The DP Tuesday addressed rallies at Karen, Southlands, DC grounds in Kibra, Mlango wa Soko and Kangemi.
