Cord parades PEV victims and accuses Jubilee of sidelining them

The opposition on Saturday paraded victims of post-election violence and accused the Jubilee administration of sidelining them.

Seen as a response to the Afraha prayer rally in Nakuru called to give thanks after the International Criminal Court terminated cases against Deputy President William Ruto and journalist Joshua Sang early this month, speakers at the Cord rally at Kibera’s Laini Saba called for immediate compensation for the victims.

Cord leader Raila Odinga did not attend the rally.

Mr Bernard Ndege, who has become the poster boy of the gruesome killings sparked when President Mwai Kibaki was declared winner of the 2007 presidential contest beating Mr Odinga, reached out to Mr Kenyatta to help compensate the victims who have been left out.

“Does it mean that we are lesser Kenyans when we hear that other people who suffered the same fate have been given some money to rebuild their lives? While no monetary compensation can give back members of my family that I lost but at least some money can help me start up again,” he said.

About 1,133 lives were lost in the bloodbath.

From those who have bullets lodged in their bodies to mothers who lost their children and husbands, the event relived testimonies of the horrific experiences narrated to Bethwel Kiplagat’s Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission in the aftermath of the violence. They were about 15 of them.

Coalition co-chairmen Johnston Muthama and James Orengo faulted the ICC for dropping the cases pointing out that the killings in Naivasha, a region that bore the brunt of the revenge killings were planned.

“What happened in Naivasha was planned where families from different parts of the country were killed. Listening to Jubilee, you get an impression that the about 1,200 lives we lost do not matter,” Mr Orengo said.

Mr Muthama said reports that some witnesses could have been influenced to recant their statements and uncooperative ones killed would haunt those responsible to their graves.

“We have to be suspicious when such questions are raised by the ICC judges, they must pay some day,” he said.

ODM chairman John Mbadi accused the president and his deputy of using Kenya as a shield against their “personal” challenges at The Hague based court to the detriment the country.

RAILA COMMENTS

Mr Odinga caused a storm two days ago when he said in an interview with a French television network that Africa needs a global court to check leaders who may want to abuse the powers bestowed upon them in what has been interpreted by Jubilee as backpedalling on his congratulatory message to Mr Sang and the DP.

The opposition disputes that interpretation.

They criticised the clergy who presided over the Afraha prayers saying they had forgotten their calling and were advancing the interests of the ruling elite.

“The Bible says the Lord stands with the weak not the mighty. It is apparent that those leading the mass in Nakuru are modern day Pharisees and Sadducees. The president has decided to stand by the mighty forgetting the downtrodden,” Mr Orengo said.

Mr Orengo also claimed that had it been that names of the opposition leaders were in the famous envelope handed over to the ICC by former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan who mediated the truce which gave birth to the grand coalition government, Mr Kenyatta would have opened it by now as a way of getting back at them.

The envelope is believed to contain names of people who had a role in the violence. Six were taken before the ICC but all the cases have since collapsed.

KAMKUNJI RALLY

Mr Muthama announced plans of a major rally at Kibera’s Kamukunji grounds on Saturday which would be addressed by all the principals, Mr Odinga, Mr Kalonzo Musyoka and Senate minority leader Moses Wetang’ula.

“We will be making a major declaration as far as coalition matters and other national issues are concerned,” he said.

Conspicuously absent at the meeting were Ford-Kenya MPs suggesting no truce yet after Mr Odinga’s skipped the presidential launch of their leader Wetang’ula.

A statement issued by the co-chairmen explaining that Ford-K did not append its signature in the coalition pact has only served to aggravate the bad blood as talks of schism gain currency.

The opposition announced they would be marching to the electoral commission offices body to force chairman Issack Hassan to resign. 

ODM political Affairs Secretary Opiyo Wandayi, who was kicked out of the House late last month after disrupting Mr Kenyatta’s State of the Nation address alongside fellow MPs, said there would be no elections next year unless the electoral commission was reformed.