NASA leader Raila Odinga on Wednesday addressed his supporters at Uhuru Park in Nairobi and made his ‘big announcement’ regarding the repeat presidential election scheduled for Thursday, October 26.
- National Super Alliance (NASA) coalition has been transformed into a resistance movement.
- The movement will embark on a national campaign of defiance of illegitimate governmental authority and non-cooperation with all its organs.
- Boycott the goods and services offered by the businesses for whose benefit dictatorship is being established.
- NASA shall convene a People’s Assembly for the purpose of charting our way back to constitutionalism and democracy.
- The movement will also mobilize all progressive forces in the country to ensure that a fresh, free and fair presidential election is organized within 90 days.
Raila Odinga also urged NASA supporters to stay home on October 26 as there will be no demonstrations.
“Do not participate in any way in the sham election. Convince your friends, neighbours and everyone else not to participate. Instead, we advise Kenyans who value democracy and justice hold vigil and prayers away from polling stations,” said Raila Odinga.
On October 10, 2017, the NASA presidential candidate announced that he had withdrawn from the fresh presidential poll and his name should not be on ballot.
Raila said NASA had withdrawn from the election because:
- The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) had stonewalled all meaningful deliberations aimed at realising the conditions for fair and free election by ‘creating an illusion of motion without movement’.
- IEBC had shown no intention of responding to NASA’s concerns as articulated in its irreducible minimums for its participation in the poll.
- Jubilee was amending the electoral in parliament to favour itself in the coming election indicating that the re-run would be worse that the August 8 poll. “To Jubilee its bora kura, to us its’s kura bora,” said Raila.
The Alliance leaders have been campaigning against the October 26 poll date urging supporters to boycott the repeat presidential election claiming IEBC as constituted is incapable of delivering credible elections.
NASA supporters have been holding nationwide demonstrations since Wednesday October 11, the clarion call being ‘No Reform, No Election’.
State House is however adamant that the elections will take place and police have been deployed to ensure the election is not disrupted. This includes recruits from all the police training colleges and several officers recently withdrawn from VIP protection services.
"Whether you vote tomorrow (Thursday) or not, we are all brothers and sisters. Kenya should remain peaceful and united even after the election," President Uhuru Kenyatta when he addressed the nation on Wednesday evening.
