Raila: We’ll collect five million signatures

Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (Cord) is going to collect five million signatures in the next two or three weeks to push for a national referendum, its leader Raila Odinga has said.

Mr Odinga, who was Tuesday campaigning for the Mathare constituency Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) candidate, Mr Steven Kariuki, said after the government failed to honour the opposition coalition’s call for national dialogue, the other option was referendum.

“We will collect five million signatures and we will follow the law in whatever we do,” Mr Odinga said and asked the government to stop claiming there wasn’t enough money for the plebiscite.

WILL NOT BE SHAKEN

He and his Cord co-principals Kalonzo Musyoka and Moses Wetang’ula said they would not be deterred in their efforts.

The leaders said they had put a plan in place to gather the signatures ahead of the plebiscite and demanded that the government prepares itself to fund the poll.

(READ: Raila’s weapon against Jubilee in referendum)

“The government should stop panicking and wait for the questions which we will present to Kenyans during the referendum,” Mr Odinga told Cord supporters at Huruma Grounds in Mathare, Nairobi.

Mr Odinga said the questions to be put for referendum would include those touching on devolution, security and elections.

He at the same time criticised President Uhuru Kenyatta for “demanding respect” from him (Odinga) and asked the Head of State to “earn your respect”.

“I respect him (the President) and I also respected the court’s decision (on the presidential petition in the Supreme Court). The President should stop demanding that I respect him, he should earn his respect.”

Mr Odinga asked Mathare voters to come out in large numbers and vote for Mr Kariuki in the August 7 mini-poll.

Mr Kalonzo said their plan was to gather more than 5 million signatures during the referendum and said the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) must also be sent packing.

JUBILEE HAS FAILED

He demanded that the government should give 40 per cent of its revenue to county governments.

“We want to collect even upto seven or 10 million signatures for the referendum,” Mr Musyoka told the Cord supporters.

Mr Wetang’ula also tore at the Jubilee Government, saying it had failed Kenyans and singled out the security contract awarded to Safaricom, and the laptops for primary schools and the standard gauge railway tenders as some of the failures of the government.

“We want to tell the President that you cannot be respected if you condone corruption and fail to provide security in the country. Respect is earned not demanded,” he said.

(READ: Referendum a major test for constitutional institutions)

The Bungoma Senator also asked Cord affiliated MPs and MCAs to step out and fight for the opposition and as he pleaded with the constituents to vote for the ODM candidate to “bury tribalism”.

The Cord principals on Monday met the experts selected to head their referendum push.

REFERENDUM BURDEN

The chairman of the Committee of Experts, Mr Paul Mwangi, told the Nation that his team and the principals reviewed the 13 issues at the centre of the quest for the referendum during a one-and-a-half hour meeting at the coalition’s Capitol Hill headquarters in Nairobi.

(READ: Cord names team to push referendum )

The lawyer said his team debriefed the leaders on their resolutions and listened to their thoughts.

IEBC acting CEO Betty Sungura-Nyabuto has said the national referendum being pushed by Cord will cost taxpayers in excess of Sh8 billion.

Ms Sungura-Nyabuto told the Nation that the commission would sit in “due course” to work out the actual financial cost.

Estimates indicate that the cost of the vote would be much higher than the Sh7.2 billion spent on the 2010 referendum after which the current Constitution was passed.

She ruled out a fresh voter registration if Cord succeeded in its push.

The Cord leaders have told the electoral commission not to worry about the source of money to pay for the referendum, saying it was the obligation of the government to do so.