Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga urged supporters to stay away from work on Monday and accused the government of having planned to rig elections and murder his supporters.
“(The) Jubilee (party) has spilt the blood of innocent people. Tomorrow there is no work,” Odinga told a crowd of around 4,000 cheering supporters in Kibera, Nairobi’s biggest slum.
He was speaking after anger erupted in Kenya following President Uhuru Kenyatta’s re-election last week.
Kenya’s opposition leader Raila Odinga vowed Sunday not to back down over an election he claims was stolen from him and urged his supporters to boycott work until he announces his strategy next week.
The 72-year-old told his supporters to stay at home and out of the way of police, after the international community beseeched him to send out a message to try to halt protests which have left 16 people dead since Friday night.
However, he defiantly vowed to “remove” the government of President Uhuru Kenyatta, who official results show was re-elected by a large margin in last Tuesday’s election that pollsters had described as too close to call.
“We had predicted they will steal the election and that’s what happened. We are not done yet. We will not give up. Wait for the next course of action which I will announce the day after tomorrow (Tuesday),” he told a heaving crowd of supporters in Nairobi’s largest slum, Kibera.
Protesters burnt shacks to the ground in a Nairobi slum in violent demonstrations against Kenya’s presidential election result
The results of that poll led to two months of protests and ethnic killings which left 1,100 people dead and 600,000 displaced.
Friday’s announcement of the election results sparked immediate protests in Odinga’s strongholds in western Kenya and Nairobi slums including Kibera and Mathare, which have left at least 16 people dead according to an AFP tally.
On Sunday the flashpoint areas were calm, with signs of life returning to normal as shopkeepers cautiously reopened after two days of running battles with police, who in some cases fired live ammunition to disperse protesters.
Odinga’s National Super Alliance (NASA) coalition has insisted Odinga was robbed of victory through hacking and manipulation of an electronic vote tallying system. REUTERS
