Raila shifts blame to State for chaos

Opposition leader Raila Odinga is now blaming President William Ruto and his Deputy Rigathi Gachagua for hiring goons and mercenaries to terrorise peaceful and innocent Kenyans.

Raila claimed Ruto was initiating class wars that he warned would only degenerate with Kenyans turning against each other. Raila claimed the State, under the direction of President Ruto and Gachagua, did everything to ensure the protests degenerate into chaos and deaths.

Yesterday, Raila while addressing the press at Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Foundation claimed that the Monday street protests degenerated into class and religious wars.

 “All along, we saw it coming. When we launched Azimio in the city of Nakuru in August 2021, we warned against pitting people against each other.  We warned against the seeds of a class war that were being planted pitting the poor against the rich, the young against the old, one faith against the other, tribe against tribe. As we warned during the campaigns, Ruto has brought the class war here. He is keen to have a religious war here. This is how it starts,” said Raila.

 However, People Daily could not authoritatively confirm the veracity or authenticity of Raila’s claims on the President and his deputy.

Raila charged that Azimio had warned the country needed to embrace a tradition of making compromises for the sake of the nation, adding that leaders needed to unclench their fists for the sake of the nation.

 “We called for the cleansing of the land of the spirit of anger and bitterness, the spirit of revenge and entitlement and to continue on a path that reconciles, unites, calms and stabilises the nation. Above all, we warned that mere words and catchy slogans alone would not work. We told our people to study history and see where it had led those countries that fell victim to the sweet tongues of politicians who were selling snake oil to desperate populations,” said Raila.

Will of the people

 He went on: “An angry and bitter duo of Ruto and Gachagua usurped the will of the people, have now taken the low road and are summoning the worst demons to drive our nation into a ditch. It’s clear the class war that Ruto promised during the campaigns is being actualised. This is how collapse begins.”

 According to the former premier, Azimio la Umoja called for protests in line with Article 37 of the constitution, and never envisaged that the State would respond by hiring goons and mercenaries to rain terror on peaceful and innocent Kenyans.

 Raila said that there is no law that allows President Ruto and Gachagua to order Kenyans to invade other people’s lands and businesses in the name of quelling legitimate, peaceful and constitutional protests.

 “Despite Azimio supporters bending over to ensure that the protests are conducted strictly within the law, the State, under the direction of Ruto and Gachagua, did everything to ensure the protests degenerate into chaos and lead to death. The State unleashed goons on farms way off Nairobi and businesses way off the CBD. In that invasion, trees were uprooted and burnt and animals skirted away and slaughtered under the supervision of the state. Business premises were stoned and broken into and property skirted away.”

 “Worse still, lives were lost. People were hacked to death with crude weapons while others got shot with guns.

Invasion of farms

Raila further explained that the last they witnessed such invasion of farms and companies in this part of the world was when the late Robert Mugabe claimed to be compensating freedom fighters in Zimbabwe, adding that the move ended in total collapse of Zimbabwe’s economy.

  “We see a plot that will be extremely disastrous for the country’s long-term stability and economy. We see little hope for Kenya’s large-scale farming. We are tearing the heart out of our commercial agriculture. We see little hope for new investments in our economy or the expansion of existing ones.  We are looking at the beginning of the end of the economy of this country.”

 Raila questioned how the President would go to Germany and talk about attracting German foreign investments to Kenya knowing yet back at home, there is a machinery for vicious attack on local investments?