It is not only the Catholic Church calling for dialogue; Anglican Bishop George Wechumo has called on Kenyatta to hold a dialogue with Odinga “so as to end the political stalemate emanating from last year’s August and October election”.
Advertisement
Kenya’s government had warned that Tuesday’s mock inauguration of Odinga as “the people’s president” after months of election turmoil would be considered treason.
The event proceeded peacefully and without police interference.
Odinga’s tweets from Tuesday include a declaration that he is “graciously accepting the mandate granted us by the Kenyan people on August 8th” and a retweet of his National Super Alliance (NASA) Party declaring him “the legitimate President of Kenya”.
He said Kalonzo will take the oath later.
They however said Nasa remained strong and united and that the principals would meet within two days “to address the enormous challenges facing this country”.
It had been highly anticipated that a major political statement would be made by the opposition leaders who have kept the country in a political mood, five months after the general elections of 2017.
Joseph Odindo, editorial director of the Standard Group, told CPJ the government gave no indication of how long the order would remain in effect. We did not get there. “A number of reasons may not be shared with the media”, he said.
“We’re not paying any attention to such a declaration”, Lone said.
Hours before the event, the Kenyan communication authority cut signals of several television and radio channels including Citizen media, NTV and KTN who planned on covering the swearing-in. “There was no explanation given”, he said. “There is no responsible government that would allow media to broadcast anything, more so live, which might incite people to violence”. A legal expert and Public Affairs commentator, Barr Godwin Ugborji is of the view that,”The move by Odinga is undesirable, and uncalled for!”
However, the stations continued to stream the footage online.
Opposition leaders have been pushing for secession and Raila has asked his supporters to boycott products such as those by Brookside, Safaricom and Bidco.
His statement elicited strong reactions within the media fraternity with his Kenya Editors’ Guild Vice Chairman and the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation’s Managing Editor Simon Maina classifying it as Kaikai’s “personal position”.
It is unclear what, specifically, prompted the government to dismantle the stations’ broadcasting equipment Tuesday morning.
Advertisement
His explanation, in an audio recording circulated via WhatsApp, could however lead to more confusion around his failure to attend the event as he suggests that he, Musalia Mudavadi and Moses Wetang’ula were blocked from attending. In what appear to be an isolated incident, police fired tear gas to try to to disperse crowds pulling down signs near the park.
