Raila Odinga 'not afraid of sanctions' ahead of 'inauguration'

Kenya’s opposition leader Raila Odinga has said he is ‘not afraid of sanctions’ ahead of his ‘swearing in ceremony’ scheduled for Tuesday 30th January 2018.

Odinga said he has received calls and threats from different ambassadors and ‘friends abroad’ asking him not to go ahead with the inauguration, but he will do it, even it it comes at the expense of travelling abroad.

The leader of the opposition National Super Alliance (NASA) coalition was addressing his supporters in the Nyanza region.

“My friends abroad and ambassadors have been urging me not to take oath, cautioning me of sanctions and having my democratic gains tainted, but I’m not interested in travelling abroad as I am busy fighting electoral injustice in the country,” said Odinga.

Odinga’s NASA insist that they won the August 8, 2016 presidential election, which was nullified by the Supreme Court after NASA challenged the electoral commission’s announcement of Uhuru Kenyatta as victor.

Odinga and NASA then boycotted the repeat election that was ordered by the Supreme Court, which Uhuru Kenyatta went ahead to win with over 98% of the votes cast.

Uhuru Kenyatta was then sworn in as president-elect but NASA refuses to recognise his government and instead plans to run a parallel government with Odinga as the ‘people’s president’.

“The era of military coups is over. When the incumbency captures the institutions of governance including the Legislature making it subordinate to the Executive, when it intimidates the Judiciary into submission and captures the electoral commission and controls the instruments of power including the military and the police it only means that any election becomes a ritual which the incumbency must win,” argued NASA’s Odinga.

Uhuru’s government has warned of dire consequences for ‘anyone working to destabilise the nation’ and calls for dialogue between the government and the opposition have not yielded tangible results.