Maandamano Is On, No Peace For 3 Days – Azimio Full Statement

This is a statement by the Azimio Parliamentary Group issued on July 17, 2023:

We are here, first and foremost, to confirm that the peaceful protests planned for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday this week are on as earlier declared by our leadership.

These protests will go on in line with Article 37 of our Constitution, which provides for freedom of peaceful assembly and states that “every person has the right, peaceably and unarmed, to assemble, to demonstrate, to picket, and to present petitions to public authorities.”

We confirm that the signature collection is also going on and will proceed side by side with the protests. The exercise of the signature collection is also protected by Article 1 of the Constitution, which provides that “All sovereign power belongs to the people of Kenya and shall be exercised only in accordance with this Constitution. The people may exercise their sovereign power either directly or through their democratically elected representatives.” In this instance, the people have decided to act directly. Who are we to go against the wishes of the people?

Having said this, we wish to set the record straight on a couple of things that Kenya Kwanza got wrong last week in its response to the ongoing protests.

Kenya Kwanza claimed that protesters are being paid. For anyone to claim that those protesters who came out in hundreds and thousands in places like Emali, Busia, Kitale, Kisii, Kilifi, Kakamega, Machakos, and Nairobi, among other places, were paid is to be extremely insincere and to live in deep denial. And that should worry Kenyans. A regime in denial and deep slumber is a very dangerous regime, and Kenya Kwanza is one such regime.

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We are shocked at how fast Kenya Kwanza has lost contact with the people and how they don’t understand what Kenyans are going through.

Kenya Kwanza claims that protests are not about the cost of living. In Kenya Kwanza’s view, the cost of living is not so high as to warrant protests. That is how a regime that has abandoned people’s agenda thinks. And Kenya Kwanza is one such regime. Kenya Kwanza does not know how angry and hungry Kenyans are.

Like a broken record, Kenya Kwanza is stuck. It is stuck in the 2018 handshake and the 2008 power-sharing deal. We ask Kenya Kwanza to wake up and move on, past the handshake and Nusu Mkate. Kenyans have moved on. Because of its lack of imagination, Kenya Kwanza is the only political formation still thinking and talking about the handshake. No wonder the regime has lost the people.

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Kenya Kwanza is accusing Azimio of failing to provide solutions to the rising cost of living. We know no country where a party stays in government but wants the one out of government to provide solutions to the problems of the people. If Kenya Kwanza’s solutions are not working for the people, Kenya Kwanza needs to get out of power. Disband and Quit.

Across the world, responsible leaders and regimes admit the failure of their policies and quit in the interest of the nation. Don’t ask us for solutions. Quit and pave the way for a regime that has solutions.

In their address last weekend, Kenya Kwanza purported to call the attention of the nation to efforts by the Government to reduce the cost of living, despite having taken over our economy at rock bottom. But they could not point to any such efforts. If there is an effort to lower the cost of living, Kenyans will notice it and Kenya Kwanza would not need to be explaining itself.

The truth is, there are no such efforts to lower the cost of living. How can the raising of taxes on fuel from 8 to 16 percent be classified as an effort to lower the cost of living?

Kenya Kwanza is telling us that the government has hired 55,000 teachers. So what? It is not a favor. They are supposed to hire teachers. But they are missing the point. People eat food, and people want food. Even the teachers are crying about the cost of food, high taxes, and low salaries. Hiring teachers doesn’t reduce the cost of living.

What is the point of hiring a teacher and then taking away his entire salary through taxes? What is the point of hiring workers and turning them into slaves?

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We encourage Kenya Kwanza to move past the generalities of constantly reminding Kenyans that Kenya Kwanza is a legitimately elected government. People want food. People don’t eat government, legitimate or illegitimate.

The legitimacy or credibility of any government is seen in the way it governs and treats people. If a regime is a failure like Kenya Kwanza is, it does not matter how legitimate or otherwise it is. People want food.

Kenya Kwanza is talking about generalities like the Hustler Fund and the plan to roll out the next phase. Kenya has never had a shortage of funds like the Youth Fund, Women’s Fund, etc. But people don’t eat funds. People eat food. People don’t eat in phases. People eat today and every day. Don’t tell Kenyans about the Hustler Fund at its next phase. Tell Kenyans how food will be affordable now, today.

Kenya Kwanza is telling hungry Kenyans that it has reduced the budget deficit by Sh500 billion. What exactly is that? Is there food in Kenya called the budget deficit? Who eats the budget deficit?

We do not understand Kenya Kwanza’s obsession with seeing and doing what Kenyans have not asked for. As far as we know, Kenyans have never asked for funds to be launched. Kenyans have specifically asked for the cost of goods to come down and taxes to be reduced. But Kenya Kwanza is talking about the deficit and funds.

We have seen Kenya Kwanza resorting to tired and bigoted phrases like “Lord of violence.” It won’t work. People don’t care. All that the people want is food and a decent standard of living. If Kenya Kwanza has a prince of peace who can’t provide food, no amount of character assassination of his challenger will sway Kenyans. People want food.

We have seen Kenya Kwanza purport to be sharing with Kenyans the Rt. Hon. Raila Odinga’s political history. How ridiculous can they get? We now challenge the same MPs to share with us the political history of William Ruto and Rigathi Gachagua from 1990 to date. They started it; let them go the full length.

We take note that Kenya Kwanza MPs have threatened to mobilize their supporters to counter-protesters whom they believe are supporters of Azimio. Again, Kenya Kwanza is missing the point and getting it wrong.

The thousands of Kenyans turning up for protests are not just Azimio supporters. Those are Kenyans from across all political and non-political formations who have been brought together by suffering. The protesters are from Azimio, Ford Kenya, ANC, and even Kenya Kwanza. People realize they don’t eat the government. People eat food, and they want food. People realize that having voted for a party or a president does not put food on the table.

All the same, we welcome Kenya Kwanza MPs to the protests on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. If they come with violence and murder, Kenya Kwanza supporters will be among the victims.

We take note that Kenya Kwanza MPs have resolved to cooperate with the police and ensure that there is no further loss of life and livelihoods. We know what this means. It means confronting protesters with members of that killer squad called Operations Support Unit, whose brief is to maim and kill protesters, including Azimio leaders.

In this regard, we take great exception to the continued threats to the life of our leader, Rt. Hon. Raila Odinga, as propagated by senior leaders of the Kenya Kwanza regime. There will be a price to pay for those threats.

We are shocked that Kenya Kwanza is talking about those who orchestrate, plan, and finance violence and occasion mass displacement of civilian populations and businesses deemed to be owned by people from other communities. That sounds like Kenya Kwanza. The sponsors of the greatest violence and murder and displacements in Kenya’s history are in Kenya Kwanza. Kenya Kwanza MPs need to know the history of the leaders of their party.

The men and women who have sponsored violence, evicted communities, and take over their land and businesses are in Kenya Kwanza.

It is clear that Kenya Kwanza is struggling on all fronts. We call on Kenyans to wake up to the reality that we are on our own, and we have to fight for ourselves. In this regard, we acknowledge motorists for their participation in the last protest and encourage them to continue staying off the road on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday in solidarity with Kenyans.

Let’s meet on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

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