Raila set to return home as calls for fresh protests gather steam

Opposition leader Raila Odinga is scheduled to arrive back in the country amid high expectations from Kenyans dissatisfied over the recently passed Finance Bill 2023 which is expected to worsen the high cost of living.

Raila and his allies are said to be planning to have a three-pronged approach to the issues at hand – street demonstrations, countrywide town hall meetings to educate supporters and court action against the bill.

The veteran politician, who had travelled to Poland to join global leaders at a conference organised by Opposition politicians, is expected to take advantage of the discontent among the public over the passage of the Finance Bill to reinvent his seemingly dwindling political fortunes.

Tomorrow, the ODM party leader is expected to preside over a consultative meeting at the Kamukunji grounds where he will possibly announce resumption of street protests as well as town hall meetings across the country.

The decision by the opposition coalition to resume street demonstrations could be necessitated by the collapse of the 14-member bipartisan talks that were supposed to address, among other things, the high cost of living and reforms at the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).

Conversation
Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition leaders told People Daily that Raila and his brigade are expected to embark on countrywide consultative meetings to expose what they consider punitive measures contained in the enacted law and how they would be directly affected.
“We want to speak to the people directly and tell them what impact these taxes would have on them. We want to explain to them so that the entire campaign would become a Kenyan led and not just a Raila Odinga dissatisfaction exercise,” former Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya told People Daily last evening.
Oparanya is the ODM deputy party leader and chairman of the Azimio National Executive Council.
Leader of Minority in the National Assembly Opiyo Wandayi said tomorrow’s meeting at Kamukunji grounds is the beginning of a conversation with Kenyans.
“We are going back to Kenyans to tell us the way forward. From Kamukunji, we shall move to all parts of the country,” Wandayi said in Siaya.
Raila is also reportedly scheduled to meet his Azimio allied governors in a bid to win their support.
But even as the Azimio leaders laid strategies to fight the bill, the government warned them to brace themselves for the consequences of protests.
In an interview with France 24 TV channel in Paris, President Ruto told the opposition chiefs to stop harbouring thoughts of unseating him.
And yesterday, Ruto and Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua warned that the government would protect lives and property at all costs.
“They should play their opposition role while knowing well that Kenya is for all of us.
On the court front, Azimio legislators Anthony Oluoch (Mathare), Otiende Amollo (Rarieda) and Daniel Maanzo (Makueni Senator) have already been enjoined in the case filed by Busia Senator Okiya Omtatah against the new anticipated law.
In their petition, Omtatah and seven others, argue that the bill is a threat to human dignity and socio-economic rights.
Oluoch has been enjoined in the petition to represent the seventh petitioner, Florence Kanyua while Otiende is to act on behalf of Michael Otieno Kojo, the third petitioner. Maanzo is set to represent Victor Okuna, the sixth petitioner.

Senate contribution
Yesterday, Omtatah told People Daily that he had joined hands with the Azimio lawyers to fight the Bill through the courts as Raila and his other brigade pursue the same course through demonstrations and town hall meetings.
Omtatah said they are specifically basing their arguments in court on two factors, with the first one being that there was no concurrence between the Speakers of the National Assembly and Senate before the passage of the bill.
Secondly, Omtatah says the Finance bill contains section touching on agriculture, health, betting and housing among others that are under county governments and should have, therefore, gone through the Senate.
Over the weekend, ODM leaders vowed to go ahead with plans to attend the Kamkunji public rally scheduled for tomorrow without fail.
They claimed the government had proved insensitive to the plight of Kenyans by using their numerical strength in the National Assembly to pass the controversial bill.
Speaking during the burial of Kisumu businessman Benard Aguko, the politicians led by Oluoch and Kisumu County Deputy Governor Mathews Owili, asked Kenyans to resist paying the alleged punitive taxes.
Oluoch said they will urge Kenyans to resist the new taxes.
“We are going to contest the decision by Parliament to pass the controversial Finance Bill against the will of the people,” said Oluoch.
Owili urged Kenyans to support Azimio leaders’ bid to continue piling more pressure on the State to reconsider dropping some of the taxes by way of amendments in the National Assembly.
Nyakach MP Aduma Owuor, Kisumu County Woman Rep Ruth Odinga and Kisumu Central MP Joshua Oron also joined the fray.

Resist
Owuor, Oron and Odinga said protest will be inevitable.
“We want you to turn up in large numbers tomorrow in our Kamkunji meeting to discuss the way forward after the passage of the Finance Bill,” said Owuor.
Trade and Industry Chief Administrative Secretary Fred Outa nominee found himself on the receiving end when he attempted to explain to the mourners to merits of the bill.
The ODM leaders rallied people to travel to Nairobi for the Kamkunji meeting tomorrow.
Odinga thanked Kenyans for standing with the opposition.
“We want to thank you  for remaining true to the calls for mass action. We want you to maintain the same for your own good,” she said.
They said time had come for Kenyans to decide about their future and resist leaders allegedly ridiculing them on the tenets of democracy.
The law makers vowed to press on with the fight against what they termed as “imperial leadership”.
They said time had come for Kenyans to decide about their future and resist leaders allegedly ridiculing them on the tenets of democracy.
 “Some people claimed this is a democratic regime. And yet what we are witnessing now is not a product of democratic progress but recession,” said Odinga.

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