Did We Have To Lose 53 Lives For The Azimio Brigade To Come To Their Senses?
The Mt Kenya Times 
Azimio La Umoja party leaders
By: Joseph Mutua Ndonga
Worth Noting:
- The provisions of 2010 constitution are very clear on how the grievances of the candidates’ dissatisfied with the final outcomes should be handled.
- Raila exhausted all these avenues. None of the prayers he sought at the Supreme Court of Kenya (Scok) would see the light of the day.
- In a unanimous decision, the seven judge bench dismissed all of them on ground of failing to meet the requisite thresholds.
- The allegations presented to us lacked an iota of evidence. The case had been cooked and built on propaganda and outright lies.
- After listening to all the parties in this case, we have come to a conclusion that the final results reflected the sovereign will of the Kenyan people.
On August 9th 2022, Kenyans of all walks of life went to their respective polling stations to elect the leaders of their choice.
They elected the Kenya Kwanza presidential candidate William Ruto as the fifth President of the Republic of Kenya.
Azimio La Umoja One Kenya Coalition leader Raila Odinga, who was his main competitor, would not accept the results.
This would not come as a surprise. He had played a similar card in the previous elections.
So, the widely held view was that Raila believed that the elections can only be free and fair if he is the one declared as the winner.
This thinking is totally ill-advised and misplaced.
Raila has over the years curved a niche of being a leading player in the clamor for democracy, social justice and rule of law.
If he truly believed in these virtues, one would have expected him to respect the democratic and constitutional ideals stipulating that power belonged to the people. So, the will of Kenyans outweighed other considerations by far.
The provisions of 2010 constitution are very clear on how the grievances of the candidates’ dissatisfied with the final outcomes should be handled.
Raila exhausted all these avenues. None of the prayers he sought at the Supreme Court of Kenya (Scok) would see the light of the day.
In a unanimous decision, the seven judge bench dismissed all of them on ground of failing to meet the requisite thresholds.
The allegations presented to us lacked an iota of evidence. The case had been cooked and built on propaganda and outright lies.
After listening to all the parties in this case, we have come to a conclusion that the final results reflected the sovereign will of the Kenyan people.
Consequently, we uphold the declaration by the IEBC chairman that Dr William Ruto had won the election.
Raila had repeatedly assured Kenyans that he would respect the verdict of the apex court.
I have no reason to doubt the judges. I’m sure they would deliver a judgement that is informed by the law, constitution and factual analysis of submissions by the all the parties.
But Raila would not wait for the dust to settle. He immediately denounced the verdict and accused the judges by claiming that they had been compromised and bribed by his main opponent-President-elect William Ruto and his brigade. He would not provide an iota of truth or any evidence to support the claims.
As we know during the campaigns, then Deputy President Ruto had totally fallen out with his boss, the outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Uhuru and the deep state had thrown their full weight behind the candidature of Raila.
This is the first time that Raila enjoyed the support of the government in power.
It was therefore hard to believe his claims.
Dr Ruto was considered to be an outsider and outcast. He took advantage of this to play the victim card which worked very well. This card helped him to rally majority of Kenyans behind his candidature. More importantly, he enjoyed God’s favor.
After losing his petition, Raila resorted to unveiling his plan B.
He had employed the same card in the aftermath of 2007, 2013 and 2017 presidential elections.
He organized and led destructive and bloody demonstrations.
I listened a few days ago the submissions of Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) before the National Dialogue Committee siting at the Bomas of Kenya.
IPOA stated that 53 people lost their lives during the Azimio led demonstrations.
If they were killed by the police, I would have expected IPOA to have sued the officers individually.
It is not convincing to say the DPP altered the content of the charge sheets so they can help them. Do IPOA want to tell us all 53 files had been interfered with?
IPOA had other options to pursue this matter. What stopped them from doing this?
Get me right. Yes, some of the protestors could have been killed by the police. But let us bear this in mind. Police are also human beings.
The media reports had indicated that some of the protesters were armed to teeth. They had guns, machetes and other crude weapons and would menacingly engage the police in a fierce running battles. How would you expect the police to deal with this volatile situation?
As for hired bodies, IPOA gave their version. I did not believe that this happened.
Well, I do not want to dwell on these issues because the matters were being investigated.
One of issue is whether the Azimio leadership had solicited for guns and issued them to their selected diehard supporters who camouflaged as protestors.
This is because it was widely believed Raila’s strategy was to cause maximum damage to our economy and set a stage for a toxic environment that would lead to the killings of as many protestors as possible.
He knew this would work to his advantage. The situation would draw the attention of the international community and religious leaders in Kenya.
They would ask President Ruto to talk with him so that peace and normalcy is restored.
For me, President Ruto is a democrat and statesman.
Upon realizing that Raila was once again hellbent on plunging Kenya into a full flown mayhem, he agreed to talk with him.
The talks bore the fruits. The 10-member National Dialogue Committee was immediately set up.
Each side picked five members and four to seat in the two technical committees.
This brings me to the question. Did we have to lose 53 innocent lives for Azimio brigade to come to their senses?
As we know, most of the Azimio demands were not aligned to the provisions of the constitution and the law.
This had prompted President Ruto and a section of the Kenya Kwanza leaders to state.
We are not going to entertain anything that is extra-legal and extra-constitutional in these talks.
So, it means these people lost their lives for unworthy cause.
As he had done before, many believe that Raila was doing all this in pursuant of his selfish and personal agenda. Has this come to pass? Many believe he has already eaten.
Joseph Mutua Ndonga is a writer and political analyst based in Nairobi
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