Raila Odinga launches truth and electoral justice drive

National Super Alliance leader Raila Odinga has vowed not to relent in his campaign to stop what he termed as “electoral fraud”, saying he has started a national campaign to educate Kenyans on how the August 8 General Election was manipulated to edge him out.

Mr Odinga said Kenyans must fight to make their votes count during elections in order to give meaning to the fight for the second liberation and the introduction of multi-party politics.

“We have reached a point where Kenyans must wake up. Stealing of elections must stop and this was the last time,” he said at the inauguration of Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho at Mama Ngina Drive gardens.

“From Mombasa to the entire country, I call on Kenyans to reject a stolen poll.

"The way Kenyans voted should be respected by the court and those who were defeated,” the Nasa leader, who has gone to the Supreme Court to petition the elections outcome, added.

VOTES INFLATED
He however did not specify how Nasa would carry out the national campaign, but spoke of “people power”.

“Stealing of elections in Kenya is a manifestation of political impunity... the only thing that has ever worked against political injustice is people power,” he said and repeated Nasa’s contention that the IEBC computers were programmed to reflect a 54 per cent win for President Kenyatta and some selected governors.

Incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta was declared winner with 8.2 million votes, while Mr Odinga got 6.7 million.

Mr Odinga said “experts in electoral fraud” supervised the tallying of votes at the Bomas of Kenya and allegedly reported that Mr Kenyatta’s votes for Mombasa County were inflated.

JUSTICE
He said Kenyans had fought for the second liberation, the introduction of multi-party politics and the new Constitution and asked them to continue fighting for justice without fear.

The Opposition leader said Nasa went to the Supreme Court after the government’s crackdown on civil society organisations that saw the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) and African Centre of Open Governance (Africog) threatened with deregistration.

He said the seven Supreme Court judges could not be relied upon to represent the will of 15 million voters.

“Seven individuals can be intimidated. They can be compromised and they can make genuine mistakes. Kenyans are still trying to understand what happened in 2013 when the decision was delivered in minutes and a paragraph,” he added.

SHAM
Though international observers had been exerting pressure on Nasa to concede defeat, Mr Odinga said they would not, adding: “We shall not accept and move on so today we launch a campaign for truth and electoral justice in Kenya.”

The Nasa leader likened the August 8 elections to the infamous mlolongo (queue voting) of 1988, accusing the Jubilee administration of plotting and executing electoral fraud.

“With this election our democracy has been subverted into a system now called election authoritarianism where dictators organise sham elections every four or five years,” he said.

PRESIDENCY
Mr Odinga further said that in another election, the computer system would be set to give wins by 70 per cent and few people would bother to vote after that and “thereafter we will have a president winning with 98 per cent of the votes cast”.

The system, he continued, was designed to frustrate ambitious leaders such as Mr Joho who has expressed a desire to go for the presidency in 2022.

Speaking during the ceremony, the Mombasa governor reiterated his presidential ambition, saying that he and his Kilifi counterpart Amason Kingi would galvanise Coast voters and ensure they presented a presidential candidate in the next elections.

HUMAN RIGHTS

Mr Kingi said they would ensure that the coast people were solidly behind them.

Nasa co-principal Musalia Mudavadi praised Mr Joho for remaining steadfast in his fight for the rights of residents, saying that it was a huge achievement to be re-elected as governor.