Editor TLN
July 7 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga has stamped this Friday his signature to inaugurate his latest initiative against the country’s authorities, a massive collection of signatures to request the cessation of the Government, with the president, William Ruto, at the head, in the middle of a another day of protests and police charges that have even reached the Odinga convoy.
Witnesses from the newspaper ‘The Nation’ have confirmed that the tear gas fired by the Nairobi Police have hit Odinga’s entourage as they headed to the historic grounds of Kamukunji for the event, but there is no record of those affected at the moment.
“I, Raila Amollo Odinga, start the collection today with my signature,” he told supporters in a campaign first conceived to call for the withdrawal of the Kenyan Government Finance Act — one that involves, for example, an increase in VAT on fuel from 8 to 16 percent — and that it has become an initiative against the government in general.
“You will receive the necessary papers with a view to collecting ten million signatures by next week. Today begins the process to recover the power that we have given to others to represent us,” added the leader of the opposition coalition Azimio La Umoja – One Kenya.
The tension in Nairobi will continue in the last hours because the coalition has declared its intention to march through the Central Park of the capital amid warnings from the Police so that they do not approach the financial center of the city, where right now the Police are beginning to use water cannons against small concentrations of opposition sympathizers.
“There are many ways to get to Rome,” Odinga said. “Our ‘Rome’ right now is Central Park and we will gather there when this event ends,” added the opposition leader before heading to the march despite the police device to control his passage.
The protests are taking place on Saba Saba Day, which commemorates the 1990 demonstrations against then-autocrat Daniel arap Moi, in a new episode in the longstanding conflict pitting Ruto against Odinga.
The opposition coalition has turned a deaf ear to the warnings of the Police and summoned its supporters in the main cities of the country, beginning with the capital, as well as in the central and eastern regions and the entire strip of the Rift Valley that crosses the country from north to south. The clashes have not resulted in victims so far but are especially intense in municipalities such as Kisii or Sinyalu, according to local residents reported to the newspaper.
