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Opposition leader Raila Odinga emerged yesterday after a week of silence to claim that the county was headed in the wrong direction.

Raila, who was a no-show during last week’s three day demonstrations over the high cost of living citing a “bad flu” held a meeting with foreign journalists during which he declared that the protests will continue until the government yields to the wishes of the masses.

He resurfaced to sensationally claim that the Kenya Kwanza administration rigged itself into power and does not enjoy popular mandate.

“To put this matter of legitimacy to rest, we have been pushing for the complete audit of the 2022 elections. We know where all these knee-jerk reactions and reincarnation of dictatorship is coming from. We have a regime that suffers a legitimacy deficit. We believe the machinations that sneaked Kenya Kwanza to power are the reason behind the regime’s determination to single-handedly reconstitute the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, an attempt we are vehemently opposed to,” said Raila.

Raila made the remarks when he met members of the International Press Association of East Africa (IPAEA).
“We believe that in the absence of a professional audit of the 2022 elections and a bipartisan reconstitution of the IEBC, the result of the 2027 elections is a foregone conclusion.
He said that because of high taxes, weak currency, high cost of power, corruption and nepotism, investors are fleeing and our currency is forever falling.

Raila claimed that ethnic division and tensions are building up especially after the regime declared that the country is a limited company pegged on how one voted. “That policy is actually being implemented. Which is why only one ethnic community is being hired to strategic positions in the public service. That is why we are prosecuting the need for inclusivity. As things stand, I fear we are marching down a very slippery path.

While vowing that the anti-tax protests in Kenya, will continue, Raila said that they never anticipated the unprecedented horrors of police brutality against protesters, adding that with a constitutional guarantee for protests, they never imagined that police would outlaw protests, confront protestors and kill so many as is the case now.

He said that although the tax protests had been initiated by Azimio, they have since gone beyond the party, saying that after the passage of the Finance Act, Kenyans have defied party, political and regional divides and united to resist punitive taxation and demand the lowering of the cost of basic commodities.
“That the tax burden is unbearable is no longer a party issue, it is a Kenyan issue. The response by the State to the protests has given way to something that now looks even more ominous than the high cost of living that the protests were initially about. We are witnessing unprecedented police brutality. We are also witnessing an unprecedented phenomenon of the State resorting to armed militia to quell protests,” said Raila.
Raila said they have visited hospitals and morgues and have established that police and hired gangs shot and killed or wounded scores of people at close range while some have been shot from the back as they fled or in a position of surrender.

Raila told the foreign correspondents that the shots were aimed at vital organs and delicate parts of the victims like the stomach, the spine, the heart, the chest and the head.
“These protests were about cost of living and excessive taxation and they will continue as such. But we are now forced to deal with the question of policing in a supposedly democratic state like Kenya. Police being deployed to break the protests have failed to act in accordance with the Constitution and the law,” he said.
He went on: “If the aim is to break up protests, then what is the justification for police to pull people out of their homes and shoot or clobber and kill them as is happening in parts of the country particularly in Kisumu and the slums of Nairobi? When police follow you into your house and start clobbering or shooting, what are you supposed to do?”
Raila said the security forces are expected to carry out their duties and responsibilities with complete impartiality and without regard to ethnicity, political persuasion or other partisan consideration.