Opposition Leader Raila Odinga Announces ‘Mother of All Protests’ in Kenya on Monday

Opposition Leader Raila Odinga of Kenya has announced that he will organize what he is calling the “mother of all protests” on Monday of next week. This announcement comes after police blocked him from accessing Jacaranda grounds last Thursday. Odinga has said that he will have no choice but to mobilize more protests if the Kenyan government does not address concerns such as the high cost of living and electoral reforms. He insists that he won last year’s election, accusing President William Ruto of stealing his vote.

During a press conference on Thursday, Odinga stated that despite the high-handedness of police officers in blocking Azimio supporters from staging protests in various parts of the country, they will not stop pushing for electoral reforms and lowering the high cost of living. He demanded the reinstatement of four commissioners who disowned the final results of the election, which they claimed were rigged to favor Ruto, and called for the opening of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission servers to determine the truth.

Odinga criticized the violence meted out on journalists by police officers during the protest, in which several were injured after tear gas canisters were lobbed at their vehicle as they relayed live coverage. He alleged that Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua and National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichungwa plotted the attack on journalists during the demonstration, but provided no evidence.

The Azimio Leader is pushing President Ruto’s administration to rescind its decision to remove subsidies on key food commodities, which he claims is unsustainable and contributes to the high cost of living. Odinga is calling for the subsidies to be restored regardless of what the IMF or the World Bank say.

Sporadic violence broke out in Kenya on Thursday, the third day of opposition demonstrations to protest the government and the high cost of living. Dozens of people in Nairobi neighborhoods Mathare and Kibera engaged police in running battles, throwing rocks, and burning tires while officers responded with tear gas. In Odinga’s lakeside bastions of Kisumu and Homa Bay in western Kenya, protesters also hurled rocks at police and lit bonfires in the middle of the road.

Odinga has called for protests every Monday and Thursday, despite the government declaring them illegal. The demonstrations have turned violent on previous days, with police firing tear gas, water cannon, and occasionally live bullets, while looters have gone on the rampage. Two civilians have been killed and 51 police officers and 85 civilians injured since last week, according to government figures.

The international community and religious leaders have called for calm, voicing fears that the violence could degenerate into the ethnic post-election fighting witnessed after the 2007 election that claimed the lives of more than 1,100 people. Eight foreign embassies, including the United States and former colonial power Britain, have released a joint statement expressing deep concern over the recent unrest and violence, as well as the destruction of places of worship and private property.