Cord leaders have come out clean on the police statement made yesterday. But first they wanted to set the record straight by rebutting Nairobi County Commander Japheth Koome’s claim that they or their supporters had planned to employ firepower in their protests against the continued stay in office of the IEBC bigwigs. “If the police intercepted a vehicle ferrying grenades into our Kibera stronghold, where is the evidence?” Tongareni MP Eseli Simiyu posed at the press briefing.
The Cord Leaders goes by saying that if indeed there was one, he hypothesised, it must have been a ‘plant’– just like the setting on fire of tyres along the Museum Hill roundabout on Monday – intended to cast their planned protests in bad light. “We know there’s been a lot of activity on the other side to portray CORD as people who love violence. They’ve actually been putting goons to infiltrate our processions and cause mayhem so that we are blamed as what happened this morning with the burning of tyres and things like that.”
In fact Cord leaders demanded the arrest, on treason charges, of National Government Spokesman Eric Kiraithe –a high ranking police officer himself – for creating the ‘alarmist’ impression that they were working with the John Magufuli headed government of Tanzania to destabilise President Jomo Kenyatta’s administration.
“Tanzania is a very peaceful nation. These are transparent schemes by the Jubilee government to set the stage for oppression. Just look at the kind of company President (Uhuru) Kenyatta keeps; the likes of Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni who suppresses opposition at any and all costs. What is he afraid of if he’s as popular as he claims?” Machakos Senator Johnson Muthama posed.
And while the leaders held up reflective jackets with the words ‘Peace Marshall’ printed on the back to demonstrate what action they would be taking to keep their demonstrations violence-free, it was a different story in Kisumu where a man was killed in their protests there. “If they restrain themselves like they did during Madaraka Day and allow us to peacefully go about our protests we don’t foresee a problem,” Siaya Senator James Orengo insisted.
This is after Cord Co principal Hon Moses Wetangula addressed the protestors at Uhuru park earlier today and said that If they continue rejecting Cords demands, we will hold daily protests which he further started categorically that Even for Jubilee, the window for dialogue is fast closing #CordDemos