PSCU WRONG ON CORD’S ANTI-IEBC DEMONSTRATIONS
The Monday anti-IEBC protest demonstrations are constitutional and legally obligatory.
Article 37 of the Constitution of Kenya on the Bill of Rights is very clear. It states as follows; “Every person has the right, peaceably and unarmed, to assemble, to demonstrate, to picket, and to present petitions to public authorities”. IEBC is a Public body.
This is a right embedded in the Constitution of Kenya and which must be respected by everyone including the government.
The statement to the media by PSCU’s Mr. Munyori Buku claiming that CORD leader Mr. Raila Odinga is using the anti-IEBC protest to create political mileage is untrue and aimed at achieving Jubilee’s agenda which is to portray Mr. Odinga as a ‘bad’ man.
It is common knowledge that the IEBC has failed the test of time. The Commissioners together with a section of Senior staff have chosen not be independent as the Constitution dictates but instead have become dependants of the Jubilee regime which they aided to ascend to power. They are directly taking instructions from one side of the political game.
This cannot go on unchecked. Mr. Odinga and other CORD leaders are players in the game of politics as is President Uhuru Kenyatta and other Jubilee leaders. There must be a level playing ground. The referee must be independent as the Constitution demands of the IEBC. The Commissioners and staff must be impartial and above board. This is what CORD is demanding of the IEBC.
Philip Etale
Director of Communications – ODM
23rd May 2015
