Kenya’s interior minister says the government has banned all opposition protests against the country’s electoral body, a day after witnesses said police killed two demonstrators.
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Kenya’s main opposition coalition said on Friday it will resume protests next week against alleged bias in the country’s election commission, ending a one-week break for a dialogue that did not happen.
Using a megaphone, Odinga told thousands of protesters in Nairobi that the High Court had ruled that their protest was legal and no teargas would be used against them. Cord principals Raila Odinga and Moses Wetang’ula who led peaceful demonstrations across the streets of Nairobi, before addressing their supporters at the Uhuru Park grounds vowed not to waver in their push to eject IEBC from office. “This man has been shot dead while protesting”, demonstrator Michael Omondi told AFP news agency.
Protesters, accusing the commission of pro-government bias and demanding its members resign before elections in August next year, blocked roads with burning tyres in both Kisumu and Nairobi’s Kibera slum.
There was no immediate response from police.
‘What will they say today after the death of this man because he was clearly shot?’ he added.
According to the East African, the protesters had closed down major roads, including the highway, in Kisumu and other towns across Kenya.
Odinga, who lost the 2013 presidential election to Uhuru Kenyatta, said the protests will continue until the commission is disbanded.
The persistent protests by the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) against the IEBC are aimed at soliciting funds from foreign nations, Bomet Central MP Ronald Tonui said on Tuesday, June 6.
Police also changed tact in handling CORD protests staying off their way, which is different from the past protests where they stopped them from accessing Anniversary Towers in CORD’s four attempts.
Kenya’s government last week condemned the protests, saying that the opposition should voice their demands through constitutional means, which would include filing a petition on the matter in parliament.
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The 2013 election nonetheless passed off peacefully, in contrast to the country’s disputed 2007 elections which degenerated into fierce inter-ethnic violence.
