DEATHS AS POLICE EXERCISE SHOOT-TO-KILL DURING TODAY’S PROTESTS | THE MAANDAMANO REPORT
Seems like the entire country is going the “Maandamano” way owing to the fact that numbers dont lie. The list of regions subscribed to the anti-government protests continue to gain numbers after Makueni and Machakos surprised the country today.
Today’s protests over high cost of living has attracted more than ten counties and regions namely : Nairobi, Nyeri, Mombasa, Migori, Kisii, Kisumu, Makueni, Nyamira, Trans Nzoia and Busia.
Kenyans have shown their solidarity with opposition leader Raila Amollo Odinga today being the send day of protests after sabasaba 7/7/2023 right after bipartisan talks were called off by the Azimio brigade.
Kisii County is believed to have maintained their strength to enjure teargas followed by Migori and Nyamira counties respectively, all in the practise of countrymanship bid for liberation. We however sadly note the fatalities of Mlolongo (3),Kitengela (2) and Migori (1) in instances yet to be made public and official so treat these as unconfirmed fatalities.
This comes barely a day after the launch of the Digital Signature by the former PM.
RAILA STATEMENT ON THE LAUNCH OF DIGITAL SIGNATURE PLATFORM: JULY 11, 2023.
“Last week, we announced the launch of a program of collecting signatures for purposes of taking back the powers we delegated to our leaders. The exercise, which is ongoing, is meant to express people’s displeasure with Ruto and the raft of punitive, unfair and unjust taxes that he has decided to impose on the people, without the people’s consent.
This is part of the campaign of resistance, the civil disobedience and citizens’ actions that we have decided to pursue to force Ruto and his regime to respect and listen to the people.
The people have decided to invoke Article 1 of the Constitution.
The process we are engaging in is about the deliberate policy decisions by the Kenya Kwanza regime to make life unbearable to a great majority of Kenyans despite the consistent appeal by Kenyans for the regime to take actions to lessen their burden.
The digital platform we have unveiled today, is complementary to all other efforts and platforms including civil disobedience, tax boycotts and defiance that are meant to compel the regime to repeal the Finance Act 2023 and take deliberate steps to lower the cost of living.
These actions are also meant to compel the regime to address all the weighty issues that we have been pushing for, including a bipartisan reconstitution of the IEBC, audit of the 2022 elections and an end to the invasion and compromising of parties and MPs.
The digital platform we have unveiled today will therefore run alongside manual or physical signature collection, and we urge Kenyans to feel free to choose between digital and manual platforms; whichever they are comfortable with.
We are aware that Kenya Kwanza has questioned where we will take the signatures and the legality of the exercise. We don’t expect them to understand. They don’t understand the people’s power as of now, but with time, they will. But they need to understand we will not take it to the Kenya Kwanza IEBC or their compromised Parliament. We take this early opportunity to thank the 1.2 million people who have signed so far.
We appeal to more people to come out and append their signatures to this historic undertaking.
As we launch this, our citizens’ engagement forums that we started in Kamkunji last week will continue. And Kamkunji will not be confined to Nairobi. As the people demonstrated last week, Kamkunji will be everywhere and anywhere across the country where Kenyans gather in the name of justice and well-being.
We sincerely thank the people who turned out and spoke loudly, boldly and fearlessly in Western, Coast, Central, Nyanza, Eastern, North Eastern, Rift Valley and of course, Nairobi last week.
We take note that in the course of our otherwise peaceful activities across the country, Kenya Kwanza responded with live bullets and killed people in various parts of the country. In Nairobi, there was an attempt to assassinate the Rt. Hon. Raila Odinga.
We know they are getting it very wrong and missing the point that what Kenyans have started is a self-propelling movement. It has never been and it will never be about an individual.
Just like the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. or the detention of Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi did not stop the march for civil rights and freedom in the US, South Africa and India, no amount of shooting, teargas or even assassination will stop the march of history in this country.
However, we intend to move to court and institute prosecution against individual officers who are involved in unconstitutional and illegal actions against protesters in the course of our activities.
Our activities are protected by the Constitution. By resorting to civil disobedience and protests, we can’t be wrong unless the law itself is wrong. Kenyans must never be made to believe that they are wrong when they protest.
We therefore ask Kenyans to film, photograph and record all those police officers who shoot at or in any other way hurt protesters in the course of our activities. Such officers are acting in disregard of the constitution and we must make them pay for their illegal activities.
We are back tomorrow, at Kamkunji in Nairobi and Kamkunjis elsewhere across the country.
Once again, we appeal to Kenyans to come out in even bigger numbers and make their voices heard. With time, Ruto will respect Kenyans.
What we started last week was only the first wave. Tomorrow, we must return with an even greater force and in greater numbers. And we must keep doing this until Ruto listens to and respects Kenyans.
Finally, and most importantly, let us stay united.
We need unity now more than ever.
With unity, the fight won’t be long and we will get many of the things we desire and deserve.
Let us stick together until the end.” wrote Raila Odinga yesterday.
