Nairobi — Opposition leader Raila Odinga announced that Monday next week will host the “mother of all demonstrations” after police blocked his access to Jacaranda grounds on Thursday. Odinga warned that, unless the Kenya Kwanza government addresses concerns such as the high cost of living and electoral reforms, he will have no choice but to mobilise further protests. “We are very reasonable people and we believe we have very valid reasons to have a conversation,” he said. “In the absence of preparedness on the other side to cooperate, these demonstrations will continue.” He added, “On Monday there will be another demonstration. This will be the mother of all demonstrations, irrespective of what our detractors say or think.”
Speaking from his Karen residence after Thursday’s protests, Odinga condemned the police’s high‑handedness in blocking Azimio supporters across the country but insisted that his movement would not be deterred from demanding electoral reforms and a reduction in the cost of living. He reiterated his claim that he won last year’s election and accused President William Ruto of stealing his votes. “The IEBC servers must be opened so that we can know the truth,” he demanded, calling for the reinstatement of four commissioners who had disowned the final results, which they said were rigged in Ruto’s favour. Odinga’s Supreme Court petition was dismissed for lack of evidence, and he criticised the ongoing effort to re‑constitute the electoral commission as “an exercise in futility unless all players are involved.”
Odinga also denounced the violence inflicted on journalists during Thursday’s protest, when tear‑gas canisters were lobbed at a news vehicle, injuring several reporters. “It is very unfortunate that the media is being targeted for attack,” he said. He alleged, without providing evidence, that Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichungwa, and Ndindi Nyoro plotted the attack on journalists and even planned assaults on Royal Media Services, the owners of Citizen TV and several radio stations. “These people are not the ones called Deputy President and Majority Leader; they belong in jail,” he asserted.
The opposition leader is pressing the Ruto administration to reverse its decision to remove subsidies on key food commodities, arguing that the move is unsustainable and drives up living costs. “We are calling for the subsidies, introduced to alleviate the suffering of our people because of circumstances beyond the country’s control, to be restored irrespective of what the IMF or the World Bank says,” Odinga said.
Sporadic violence erupted on Thursday, the third day of opposition demonstrations against the government and the soaring cost of living. Security was tight in Nairobi, with police in riot gear patrolling the capital after fierce clashes on Monday. In the congested neighborhoods of Mathare and Kibera, dozens of residents engaged police in running battles, throwing rocks and burning tires, while officers responded with tear gas. In Odinga’s strongholds of Kisumu and Homa Bay in western Kenya, protesters also hurled rocks and lit bonfires on the roads.
Odinga has called for protests every Monday and Thursday, accusing President Ruto of stealing last year’s election and failing to curb the rising cost of living. The demonstrations, declared illegal by the government, have turned violent on several occasions, with police deploying tear gas, water cannons and, at times, live ammunition, while looters have taken advantage of the chaos. Government figures indicate that two civilians have been killed and 51 police officers and 85 civilians injured since last week.
The international community and religious leaders have urged calm, fearing that the unrest could spiral into the ethnic post‑election violence that followed the 2007 election, which claimed more than 1,100 lives. “We are deeply concerned by the recent unrest and violence, as well as the destruction of places of worship and private property,” eight foreign embassies, including those of the United States and the United Kingdom, said in a joint statement on Wednesday.
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