Nipate
Forum => Kenya Discussion => Topic started by: Simanova on June 25, 2016, 02:09:14 PM
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He is now using the CID to intimidate organizers. He has lied to the youth so much that he cannot enter any such meeting or even risk holding one:
(http://www.the-star.co.ke/sites/default/files/styles/new_full_content/public/articles/2016/06/25/1372341.jpg?itok=5p9w1faV)
Cord leader Raila Odinga at the meeting with youth held at Masinde Muliro University last week.
/ COURTESY
Intelligence officers are keenly watching a series of meetings Cord leader Raila Odinga has organized for youth groups.
The organizers of a meeting held in Mombasa on May 29 have been questioned by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, although it remains unclear what crime may have been committed to warrant the DCI’s involvement.
Some 5,000 youth attended the first forum, dubbed simply kikao (session), held at the Wild Waters Resort.
The second kikao was held on June 18 at Masinde Muliro University and attended by about 4,000 young people.
Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya – Raila’s second in command in the Orange Party – was the host of this event.
It is this series of meetings that Interior CS Joseph Nkaissery appeared to refer to when he claimed that the opposition was plotting to trigger a revolution similar to the Arab Spring that toppled and destabilized several governments in North Africa and the Middle East.
These details emerged just days after former Nairobi mayor George Aladwa and Dagoretti North MP Simba Arati were also grilled by detectives following claims they have been recruiting youths as militia to destabilize the Jubilee government.
Themed Ujana si Hukumu (Youth is not a Curse), the first caucus in Mombasa was hosted by Governor Hassan Joho and presided over by Raila. Joho issued over Sh100 million worth of bursaries to students at the event.
Sources told the Star two key organizers of the event (professionals who are keeping a low political profile) have already been questioned by the police.
“The two were asked about the intention of the forums,” a source within the opposition told the Star. “But to us it is a continuation of political intimidation. The government is scared that it has lost ground and cannot secure re-election in 2017.”
The next forums are scheduled for Kisii, Nyamira and Kilifi, with many ODM-controlled counties lined up before Raila formally launches his Presidential campaign.
ODM insiders say the forums are meant to create an opportunity for the Cord leader to reconnect with the youth ahead of the 2017 polls.
Raila’s think tanks believe many young Kenyans, especially those born in the 1990s and after, are not familiar with his leftist ideology and his Second Liberation struggle credentials that have seen him remain at the apex of Kenyan politics for over a decade-and-a-half.
During the Kakamega event, Raila urged the youth to interact with him on social media platforms Facebook and Twitter, focusing on digital communication for his 2017 Presidential campaign.
“Anybody with a cellphone should wave it in the air. How many of you are on Facebook and Twitter? If you are on those two social media platforms, reach me @RailaOdinga,” he said, amid cheers
Raila has also been using the Kikao forums to advocate youth empowerment, fight ethnicity and champion his political ideology. He has also sought to demonstrate why President Uhuru Kenyatta is allegedly such a disappointment for the youth, specifically citing the Sh1.8 billion NYS rip-off.
“The youth are a valuable resource if empowered, but can also be a curse to the nation if abandoned, since this will turn them into bad citizens,” Raila said in Kakamega.
He accused Jubilee of reneging on devolving the youth affairs function, so that it can steal billions of shillings earmarked for youth programmes.
On Tuesday, Aladwa, the ODM Nairobi chairman, and Arati recorded a statement at DCI Headquarters in Nairobi.
However, the two later said they will be treated as State witnesses after a student at the University of Nairobi linked them to the coup plot cited by the government.
Raila’s former chief of staff Caroli Omondi was also said to be on the police radar.
Early this week, Interior CS Joseph Nkaissery claimed recent countrywide protests by the opposition were “bigger” than just the clamour for reforms at the electoral agency.
“People think Kenya is a very weak country and you can repeat what happened in Libya and Egypt here. That is the thinking of these fellows of Cord. It is high time that Kenyans are told this is a revolution in the making and the government will not allow it,” Nkaissery said.
Government Spokesman Eric Kiraithe has also claimed some unnamed politicians are being bankrolled by a number of regional states to topple the Kenyatta Administration.
“These people, who are seeking funding [from the region] are politicians out to destabilize the country and take over political office through extra-constitutional means. We have taken note and appropriate action will be taken,” the Government Spokesman told journalists.
Starehe MP Maina Kamanda specifically cited Tanzanian President John Pombe Magufuli and South Sudan’s Salva Kiir as among regional kingpins bankrolling Raila.
But Raila and the Cord brigade have lashed out at Nkaissery, terming him the worst Cabinet Secretary in post-independent Kenya.
“Honourable Nkaissery will go down in our history as the worst minister ever: He treats Kenyans like his military subordinates,” Raila claimed.