Kindiki Cautions Raila Over Countrywide Rallies

• CS Kindiki stated that the government will not interfere with the opposition’s activities, provided that they do not disrupt businesses or contradict the law.
• He added that the government will not hesitate to prosecute any politician dealing in activities that pose a security to the country.

Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki on Monday warned Azimio La Umoja leader Raila Odinga of breaking the law in his ongoing nationwide rallies.

Odinga has lined up a series of rallies in various counties as he mobilizes supporters to reject the President William Ruto’s regime. He has already held three rallies in Nairobi.

Addressing the press where he gave his 100 days in office scorecard, CS Kindiki stated that the government will not interfere with the opposition’s activities, provided that they do not disrupt businesses or contradict the law.

 “I have no business with those who are doing demonstrations; actually I don’t care, on one condition; that they keep law and order. The day they will try to break the law, to breach peace, to incite public disorder, that is the day the full weight of the Ministry of Interior will come on them,” warned Kindiki.

“They can do rallies, they can picket and demonstrate, so long as they don’t disrupt businesses and force people who are not aligned to them to listen to them by force… they can do their politics… that’s not my business.”

He added that the government will not hesitate to prosecute any politician dealing in activities that pose a security to the country.

“I have told all politicians, they are my friends and allies when they are helping me make Kenya a secure country. The moment they pose a threat to that aspiration they are my clients in another sense,” the CS said.

Odinga, who lost to Ruto in a tightly contested presidential race in August last year, maintains that the polls were rigged in favour of the former deputy president.

“We still maintain that Ruto got into State House by hijacking and subverting the will of the people. He must get out!” he told his latest rally on Sunday at the Kamukunji Gardens.

Among the conditions he has given is the demand that President Ruto and all leaders in the government resign.

President Ruto and his deputy, Rigathi Gachagua, have however dismissed criticism from the Azimio leader as a strategic ploy to land him in a political truce with the Kenya Kwanza administration, similar to his ‘handshake’ with retired president Uhuru Kenyatta on March 9, 2018.

In the meantime, the Azimio coalition is set to tour Machakos on Friday, before heading to Busia on Sunday.