By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Kenya’s opposition leader, Raila Odinga has accused President William Ruto of taking the country back to pre-colonial era, alleging that authorities have singled him out for assassination after claiming that his car was shot with life bullet on Thursday.
The Azimio la Umoja (one Kenya) coalition party leader spearheading an anti-government protest in its second week in the Nairobi capital told supporters in Karen on Thursday that there is plan to eliminate him.
Mr. Odinga took a swipe at President William Ruto-led government, accusing it of hostile attacks against peaceful demonstrators merely exercising their rights.
He further slammed foreign nations for allegedly fanning the conflict instead of solving it by, first – and at the very least – standing on the fence and not taking sides.
“We condemn in the strongest terms possible what has happened today. Today is a very sad day in the history of this country. This shows that we’re degenerating into the colonial stage, where lives of Africans did not matter at all, because there’s no reason why police should use this kind of force against unarmed citizens who are merely exercising their democratic rights,” he said.
“My own car was hit seven times with live bullets, and the direction of the bullets were all aimed at me. These people have been threatening and blackmailing us, unfortunately the friends of this country are not helping. Look at the statement released by some ambassador based here, you would think that they live in a different country; they’re actually adding fuel to this conflict, instead of being independent and neutral arbiters.”
The former Prime Minister further condemned attacks on the press witnessed during Thursday protests, where at least four journalists from different media houses – among them Citizen TV – were hospitalised after reportedly being brutalised by police officers while covering the demonstration.
“It is very unfortunate that in the whole of these skirmishes, the media is being targeted for attack. The other day and today, several journalists have been injured,” he said.
“We also had information that they were planning to attack Uhuru’s (Kenyatta) farm, business, and residences.”
The police had barred Odinga from leading a protest but the opposition leader insisted in continuing even as several police officers in the country have been deployed to the street to stop the protest.
At least four opposition lawmakers have been arrested and charged for anti-government protest, even as the opposition lawmakers deny any wrongdoing.
