NASA: We will explore laws to make Raila our President

The National Super Alliance (NASA) has vowed to use all legal means at its disposal to ensure Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka are installed as President and Deputy President respectively.

NASA co-principal Musalia Mudavadi said they will next month hold the inaugural convention of the People’s Assemblies on a date to be announced.

“The right of citizens to exercise their sovereignty at the county level should not be subject to supervision or veto by the national government,” he said.

Already, 13 county assemblies have passed the motion presented by NASA leadership and according to their CEO Norman Magaya, seven others are expected to pass by next week.

In a resolution arrived at following a meeting at Maanzoni Lodge in Machakos County yesterday, Opposition leaders committed themselves to seeing to it that the two principals assume office even as the government finalises plans to swear-in President Uhuru Kenyatta for a second term.

Mudavadi was however quick to point out that the Opposition will not disregard the Constitution as they pursue ways of installing Raila as president.

Mudavadi urged Kenyans to ignore Tuesday’s swearing in of President Kenyatta and instead join them at Jacaranda Grounds in Nairobi for a memorial service for those who died when police clashed with their supporters as they welcomed back Raila to the country nine days ago.

He said NASA had instructed its MPs not to participate in vetting President Kenyatta’s Cabinet. “We do not recognise the October 26 presidential election and declare that as per Article 1(1) of the Constitution, we have not individually and collectively delegated our sovereignty to Uhuru Kenyatta,” Mudavadi said.

Mudavadi said that Tuesday’s function at Jacaranda will not be used to swear-in Raila, insisting that the event will just be a memorial service.

The government has indicated that 20 heads of State will attend Tuesday’s swearing-in ceremony of Uhuru at Kasarani Stadium in Nairobi. The day has already been gazetted as a public holiday.

Preparations are on top gear ahead of the event, with the military having taken over Kasarani Stadium.

Mudavadi said yesterday’s meeting was the beginning of a journey of restoring a democratic and just government.

Present were Raila, senators James Orengo, Agnes Zani, Rose Nyamunga, Amos Wako, George Khaniri, Mutula Kilonzo Junior, Enock Wambua, Fred Outa and MPs Ayub Savula, Raphael Wanjala, Dan Maanzo, Simba Arati, Tom Kajwang’ and Opiyo Wandayi.

Others were Florence Mutua (Busia Women Representative), Esther Passaris (Nairobi Woman Representative), Gladys Wanga (Homa Bay County Women Rep), Janet Ongera (Kisii County Women Rep) Christine Ombaka (Siaya Women Rep) among other Opposition leaders.

Raila did not address the media and Mudavadi is the only one who read the resolutions of the meeting.

He sought to explain the People’s Assembly, saying it has been clouded with misinformation.

“If as now the State fails the people, if it is hijacked by self-serving people, if leaders consistently abuse power, if checks and balances do not work as they should, then people are compelled to go back to the drawing board. The People’s Assembly is that drawing board,” he said.

Mudavadi clarified that the People’s Assembly is not a parallel government, an alternative Parliament or county assembly but a process of charting political destiny.

“As People’s Assembly, we will protect our county governments from predations of the Jubilee administration that are already manifest. We will reflect on the politics of exclusion and ethnic dominance,” he said.

He added that the country is now divided between those who are prepared to accept dictatorship and those who will resist it to the end.

“Jubilee administration’s mission is to take us back into a centralised dictatorship, back to human rights abuses, repression of political rights, exclusion and economic marginalisation of regions and communities which refuse to toe the line,” he said.

He added: “This usurpation of power is culmination of determined effort by the Jubilee administration to dismantle the new Constitution.”

He said that institutionalisation of sham elections will mean that sycophancy will again supplant the will of the people and become the shortest and surest route to elective office. “A return to the political backwardness of our past is more than unacceptable. It is intolerable,” he said.