Nasa to use peaceful resistance in reforms push

National Super Alliance leader Raila Odinga now says the planned resistance movement will be a wing of the coalition.

Mr Odinga said Nasa will remain a coalition but will have a new facet that specialises in civil disobedience.

In an interview with CNN on Friday, Mr Odinga further said the resistance movement will only use legal means to push forward its agenda.

“I understand that your party is going to become a resistance movement, not a political party. What does that mean for ordinary Kenyans?” a CNN anchor asked.

PEACEFUL RESISTANCE

Mr Odinga replied: “That is actually being misunderstood. We have our alliance, which is called the National Super Alliance. It has remained a super alliance. It has branches.

“One, we have a parliamentary wing. As you know, we have members of the National Assembly and members of the Senate.

"Now, we are creating another wing, which is the resistance movement.

“This is basically going to be involved in civil disobedience, civil resistance, not an armed resistance. We are going to use all the legal and constitutional means to put pressure on this government to do what we wanted to do.”

JOSEPH KONY

This comes even as Nasa co-principal Musalia Mudavadi dismissed as mischievous a statement by Jubilee lawmakers equating the planned resistance wing with Uganda’s National Resistance Movement.

“That is mischief, to paint us as having taken up arms for a violent struggle.

"All we have done is expanding our mandate as Nasa to include resistance to a repressive regime through civil disobedience. It’s constitutional and lawful to disobey dictatorship,” Mr Mudavadi said.

LEGACY

He spoke during an interview with East Africa bureau chiefs of the New York Times and Africa Confidential at his Nasa office in Nairobi on Friday.

On Thursday, Elgeyo-Marakwet Senator Kipchumba Murkomen laughed off the Nasa leaders’ Wednesday announcement that they would form a resistance movement.

“Mr Odinga has been a respectable statesman, who was in the league of former president of South Africa Nelson Mandela.

"It is sad that now all that respect is gone as he turned himself as a rebel leader,” Mr Murkomen said.

“I hope Mr Odinga will not take our youth to the forest and start fighting. That is not the country we need.”

CONSTITUTION

Asked by CNN whether his alliance was setting itself up for confrontation with the government, Mr Odinga replied in the negative.

“We are going to use legal means. As you know, our Constitution allows for picketing, for striking, for peaceful processions, for protesting and so on.

"So, we have several other means that are legal and constitutional at our disposal, which we will bring into play to put pressure on this government,” he said.

ELECTION

The Nasa leader said he will not hold any dialogue with President Uhuru Kenyatta unless it is about conducting a fresh election.

“Right now we’re saying what we’re ready to talk about is how another proper election can be held within the next 90 days. That is the only thing that we are ready to talk about,” said Mr Odinga.

Mr Mudavadi used Friday’s interview with the foreign media to ask the international community not to agree to a “fraud” being committed through Thursday’s repeat election.

“Jubilee has blindfolded them and they are unable to see the erosion of the will of the people via an election based on an illegality and carried out with aggressive dishonesty.

"Why are they doubting that this imitation of an election became a nullity the day the Nasa candidate withdrew?” he asked.