Azimio la Umoja One Kenya leader Raila Odinga has postponed the coalition’s planned people’s baraza in Mombasa that had been scheduled for next Saturday.
The coalition will instead hold the meeting in Kakamega on Saturday, February 25.
In a statement on Sunday, Mr Odinga’s spokesperson Dennis Onyango said the change was effected to ensure better coordination of the coalition’s activities.
“The leadership of Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Coalition Party has made slight changes to its programme of activities for the coming week.”
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“To better coordinate its activities, the party made a decision to clear with western Kenya, before proceeding to other parts of the country,” read the statement.
Consequently, Mr Onyango noted that Azimio will hold a People’s Baraza in Kakamega on Saturday, 25th February 2023, instead of Mombasa that weekend.
“The prayer rally earlier scheduled for Jevanjee Gardens in Nairobi on Wednesday, 22nd February 2023, remains,” he said.
Mr Odinga says the coalition will hold interdenominational prayers at Jevanjee Gardens to pray for the country and the electoral agency.
He accused President William Ruto of using the Bible and a section of ‘corrupt’ religious leaders to sanitise dictatorship in the country, adding that opposition prayers will involve clerics of integrity.
“We will not allow this country to slide back to a single party one-man dictatorship in the name of God because all the time they are talking about the Bible and they are being fronted by very fake religious leaders,” Mr Odinga charged.
He went on: “The Bible is now being abused to sanitize dictatorship which is very unfortunate. Most of our religious leaders have lost it, they have been consumed and are being bought to try and sanitize a very unhealthy political development.”
He accused President Ruto of “trying to sanitize a lost election” using ‘fake’ clergy.
“Election theft is being sanitized and they are now using strong-hand tactics to intimidate and blackmail people in this country. We will not take it lying down.”
“They have been jumping up and down blaming and blackmailing people that they are going to take action against them, we are telling them to bring it on. If you want it, we are prepared. We are prepared to die in defence of the gains which have been made by the people of Kenya at a great cost,” the former Prime Minister added.
He claimed that the recent parastatal appointments were skewed with at least 18 heads of procurement out of 32 slots hailing from one community.
“It is a sad state of affairs. If you look at the appointments in parastatals, out of 32 procurement officers, 18 are from one community, the other four share the remaining 14 slots while the rest of the country doesn’t have a single one.”
“Yet they say they are looking at everyone equally and ensuring the country is united. There is a big disconnect between rhetoric and realities in this government,” the ODM leader added. BY DAILY NATION