Opposition chief Raila Odinga is set to hold a major public rally today at Kamukunji grounds in Nairobi.
This will act as a curtain raiser for the planned series of meetings lined up by the Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition.
Moreover, Raila in the previous week announced that he will inform his supporters on the next move to take during today’s rally.
The Azimio communications team in a schedule stated that Mr. Odinga and the other coalition leaders will first attend a church service at St Stephen’s ACK church on Jogoo Road before heading to Kamukunji grounds for the rally.
“We have listened to you in this forum that we should continue with dialogue even as we stage demonstrations. We will continue with demonstrations, and we will announce when the protest will be held after the Ramadhan period,” Raila said.
Nevertheless, the opposition leader has called off the anti-government protests at the beginning of the month, to provide room for dialogue between the two opposing sides.
Also Read: Ruto to Raila: Challenges Facing Kenyans Cannot Be Solved Through Demos
As such, the U-turn to the protests as thrown the planned bipartisan talks proposed by President William Ruto into disarray.
Furthermore, Raila and president Ruto are stuck in a brawl on the reconstitution of the electoral commissioners which the president insists will only happen through bipartisan talks in Parliament.
Even though both sides have nominated their loyal members to take part in the bipartisan talks, Raila Odinga insists he wants the initiative expanded to be extra-parliamentary similar to the 2007/08 mediation talks led by former UN Secretary-General, the late Kofi Annan who led a political deal that got former President Mwai Kibaki to share power with Odinga who had disputed election results.
“The bipartisan talks will continue hand in hand with the street protests,” Odinga declared earlier this week, “the other side [of Ruto] is not sincere and therefore we will have to tackle them but resuming the demonstrations.” The Azimio leaders stated.
Nonetheless, President William Ruto and his Deputy Rigathi Gachagua have cautioned the Opposition against leading violent protests.
