President William Ruto’s allies within the ruling United Democratic Movement have called for the arrest of Azimio leader Raila Odinga over his renewed street protests against the government.
In a statement delivered by UDA secretary general Cleophas Malala, the leaders said it’s time Raila accepted that Ruto is the President and efforts aimed at forcing him out of office are far-fetched.
“We would like to tell Raila, William Ruto is here to stay until 2032. If you want to collect signatures, come in 2023 when we will have (Deputy President) Rigathi Gachagua, Musalia Mudavadi, Wetang’ula and me,” Malala said.
He spoke on Saturday during a UDA popularisation and recruitment exercise in Tana River county which was attended by various leaders including Tana River Senator Dandson Mungatana and Saku MP Ali Rasso.
During the Saba Saba rally on Friday, July 7, Raila launched a 10 million signature collection campaign which he said is aimed at wrenching the people’s sovereign power from Ruto.
He signed the petition and said he hopes 10 million supporters will have signed it by next month and announced a second round of protests on Wednesday.
The opposition chief also said Azimio would establish a parallel national electoral commission “and carry out a referendum to delegitimise this regime”.
But Malala said what Raila is doing amounts to a criminal offence as only the President is mandated by the Constitution to appoint the country’s electoral agency.
He said they will not tolerate an opposition that is hellbent on sabotaging the government through destructive means to ostensibly force a legally elected government out of power.
“We would like to tell Raila, the chaos that you are bringing here, the total disregard of the rule of law that you are doing, we continue to tolerate you but we have almost had enough,” he said.
“If you continue to destroy people’s property, if you continue to scare away tourists, if you continue using our youth…Raila Odinga you are not above the law, we will arrest you and take you to court like other ordinary citizens.”
