26 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Government of Kenya is contemplating the possibility of starting a political operation to demand that Western countries sanction the opposition leader, Raila Odinga, accused by the country’s president, William Ruto, of perpetrating constant destabilization maneuvers by rejecting his defeat in the presidential elections and constantly call for popular mobilization against the authorities.
Specifically, the Ruto Administration does not rule out Western countries that prevent Odinga from entering and adopt measures against the opposition leader’s assets abroad, according to sources close to the initiative to the Kenyan newspaper ‘The Nation’.
This past Wednesday, Odinga, the country’s former prime minister, gave the government a two-week ultimatum to change the functioning of the country’s Independent Electoral Commission, or else it will trigger a wave of mass protests.
The elections ended up being decided by the Supreme Court of Kenya, which ended up endorsing Ruto’s victory in the elections in August last year, with an opinion unanimously supported by the seven magistrates that make up the court. Odinga categorically rejected the verdict.
Officially, the government has so far rejected any measure against Odinga, according to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and the Diaspora, Alfred Mutua. “The government does not have time to get entangled in the endless political theater of Mr. Odinga. We are not on a witch hunt. If he wants to demonstrate, let him do so,” he added to the Kenyan newspaper.
Without confirming the plans against Odinga, Senator Samson Cheragei has asked the former prime minister to withdraw any international privileges he could still enjoy based on his past position at the head of the Kenyan government.
“‘Tinga’ (Odinga) should lose all the privileges he was given locally and internationally given his former position as prime minister. The international community, as a rule, places restrictions on people who foment civil strife against legitimate governments,” has declared.
“You don’t earn the respect of the international community by trying to provoke a civil war,” adds the deputy to the majority leader in the National Assembly, Owen Baya, who recalled the case of former Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe. “He was a respected democrat, but when he began to undermine the same democratic principles, the international community imposed harsh sanctions against him.”
“Raila has earned a name for being a democrat. But if he starts to behave like a rebel, we will ask the international community to punish him,” he warned.
