NASA Chief Raila Odinga has maintained the Supreme Court cannot represent the voice of 15 million Kenyans who voted for a better Kenya.
In a statement during the swearing-in ceremony of Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho on Tuesday, Raila said Kenyans need to understand the reason behind their earlier decision not to challenge election results at the Supreme Court.
“It is important for Kenyans to understand why we resisted going to court, and why we have reconsidered it,” he said.
“The Supreme Court is made up of seven Judges. The discretion of seven individuals, however wise, can neither represent nor substitute the voice of 15 million people.”
Further, he remarked “Seven individuals can be intimidated, they can be compromised and they can make genuine mistakes.”
He said that they learnt their lesson in 2013 as “Kenyans are still trying to understand what exactly happened in the Supreme Court in 2013 when a decision about their votes was delivered in minutes and a paragraph.”
Raila who vied against Jubilee Uhuru Kenyatta and was floored said that no matter the ruling delivered by the court on the petition, electoral impunity cannot be cured.
“Whichever way the court rules, the petition will not in itself cure electoral impunity. It will not bring to justice those who plotted and executed the theft of our votes. It will not bring to justice those who murdered Chris Musando in order to steal votes.”
He also said that “Stealing of elections in Kenya is a manifestation of the culture of political impunity.”
He hit out at foreign envoys who urged him to concede defeat and move on.
“Let the agents of foreign powers exhorting us to accept and move on so that they can continue to have lackeys to do their bidding know that we will not accept inferior governance.”
“We will resist and disobey illegitimate computer generated leaders and we will not relent until the voices of the people as expressed through the ballot are heard and respected,” charged the former Prime Minister.
He noted the only thing that has ever worked against political injustice is people’s power which will allow “the ambitions of our young, restless and ambitious leaders like Ali Hassan Joho, Peter Munya, Isaac Rutto, Amason Kingi, among others, ever have a chance of rising to the top of our political leadership.”
By Pharis Kinyua. He’s an online journalist and an author for Jamhuri News