Fresh details that have emerged indicate foreign diplomats played a huge role in postponement of the ‘swearing-in’ of NASA’s Raila Odinga.
Internal pressure too led to postponement of the event which had been slated for Tuesday.
It was to be held at Tononoka Grounds in Mombasa. Governor Hassan Joho who is the ODM Deputy Chair and has close links with Raila had offered to host the event.
On Sunday, NASA Co-principal Musalia Mudavadi announced the about-turn at Okoa Kenya offices.
Though he did not give a definite reason for dropping the inauguration bid, he cited local and international pressure.
He said he will give a reason on Monday why NASA has called off the swearing-in to a later date.
“Following extensive internal consultations and engagement with a wide range of national and international interlocutors, the Nasa leadership wishes to advise the Nasa fraternity and the general public that the swearing in of Rt Hon Raila Amolo Odinga and His Excellency Stephen Kalonzo Musyoka as President and Deputy President of the Republic of Kenya, and the launch of The People’s Assembly, scheduled for Tuesday, December 12, have been postponed to a later date,” he said aas quoted by Daily Nation.
Envoys led by US Ambassador Robert Godec and UK High Commissioner Nick Hailey have been pressuring NASA to drop its oath plan.
The two envoys in their argument said that if Raila went ahead with the oath plan, it would plunge the country into further political turmoil.
They called for immediate, constructive and sustained national dialogue between Raila and President Uhuru Kenyatta.
NASA had put in place a 7-member team tasked with organizing the event. Mudavadi’s changed tone divided the team.
But he assured them together with NASA supporters that their resolve remains the same; nothing will change.
“We are aware that this will be a disappointment to the people of Kenya who were eagerly waiting for this occasion,” said the ANC Party boss.
“Specifically, we wish to reiterate that any national dialogue must have electoral justice on the agenda. We are not interested in sharing illegitimate dictatorial power,” he added.
In a bid to calm the disappointed NASA supporters, he said: “We want to assure Kenyans that we remain fully on course in pursuit of electoral justice. Our resistance of dictatorship is resolute and irreversible. We remind the Nasa fraternity to maintain our civic and economic resistance. There are only two options — democracy or self-determination.”
Insiders within NASA intimated that the move was to show that the opposition coalition can fight for justice without reverting to unconstitutional means.
“It was meant to send a signal to the world that we are not unreasonable people, and to show that Nasa is not made up of anarchists. A lot of people have died.”
NASA now hopes to engage Uhuru in dialogue.
But the President ruled out any form of dialogue saying they should wait for 2022 and dialogue with his Deputy William Rutois being groomed to take over from his boss.