Civil society groups have raised concerns over CORD leader Raila Odinga’s visit to Kibera on Tuesday and commenting on the IEBC and Safaricom case of vote rigging.
Midrift Human Rights network’s chairman Joseph Omondi speaking to journalists in Nakuru on Wednesday said that commenting on an issue that has got ongoing proceedings in the court is legally not in order.
At the same time, Omondi said that such visits should be discouraged at all costs for they might act as ways of triggering violence amongst the CORD supporters who might be thinking that justice didn’t prevail during the vote counting and that their leader of choice was not treated in the right way.
“The visits especially to such place like Kibera is dangerous as it makes the supporters who might not be supporting the presidential results announced that their leader of choice was not treated fairly.” Said Omondi
Omondi says that if Raila is interested in ensuring peace prevails, the best way to address the supporters is by releasing a press statement telling them to be patient and wait for the court’s verdict as opposed to visiting them and commenting on an issue that has been presented to the supreme court.
He says that the language and the tone used by Raila during the said visit to Nairobi’s Kibera estate was not suggesting any calmness citing such comments as one of the reasons that led to 2007/08 post polls chaos.
The rights body now want such meeting to be halted immediately as they do not send a pleasant message to peace actors and Kenyans at large.
“We underwent a very fragile transitions in managing the elections and ensuring that peace prevails, no one should try to interfere with the tranquility already achieved by efforts made by different bodies in ensuring that the country is safe.” Omondi added.
However, the right group has discouraged the security briefing that has already been given to Uhuru Kenyatta, saying such might be the trigger towards the punitive acts by Raila.
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