Raila Odinga, Kenya’s fiery opposition chief is staring at possible charges of treason should he go ahead and take Presidential oath on Tuesday next week.
Kenya’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) has recommended that Raila and his lieutenants in NASA, be charged with treason should they go ahead with the plan on Tuesday.
NASA brigade led by James Orengo (Siaya Senator) has maintained Raila will be sworn-in on Tuesday next week.
This will be also the day when President-elect Uhuru Kenyatta will be inaugurated in a ceremony set to be attended by a host of African heads of state.
This follows Supreme Court verdict which upheld his victory in the October 26 repeat polls.
According to the Star, NIS recommendation has been adopted by the National Security Advisory Council.
The council met on Thursday and adopted the recommendation.
In treason conviction, the punishment is death.
Hitherto, NASA has not made any official statement on whether they will or not, swear-in Raila.
Instead, there are reports they will hold a mega rally in Uhuru Park as Uhuru is sworn-in.
Some NASA operatives had earlier expressed their discomfort with the coalition’s plan to swear-in Raila.
They cited such a move would be too confrontational with the government and would in the end, be fatal for both opposition supporters and leaders.
However, Raila’s planned “swearing-in” is not legal in any way because Judiciary’s Chief registrar together with the Chief Justice should officiate the inauguration ceremony in public.
In this case, they will be held up in Uhuru’s fete at the Kasarani Stadium.
Earlier, Government Spokesperson Eric Kiraithe had said that government has no problem with Raila being “sworn-in” as long as the event is held in private.
“The question of a person congregating his friends to swear him in is not an issue and has no legal concern. If they held it somewhere without interfering with the rights of other people, then the government would not even be concerned,” said Kiraithe.
On Friday, Raila was invited as a guest to Uhuru’s swearing-in ceremony but he turned it down.
Today, (Saturday), he is expected to give a major announcement which may include a list of firms to be boycotted by Kenyans.
Brookside-linked to President Uhuru Kenyatta, Bidco and Safaricom are among companies that NASA had named earlier and asked Kenyans to boycott their products and services.
NASA CEO Norman Magaya on Thursday said the boycott is “working wonders”.