Opposition leader Raila Odinga on Wednesday rubbished Communications Authority of Kenya’s rebuttal of allegations that Safaricom engaged in electoral malpractices during the August 8 elections. During a press conference in Nairobi, Raila said the Authority was under pressure to defend Safaricom. On Wednesday Safaricom placed full page in daily newspapers to rebut Raila’s claims that it was involved in the bungling of the polls.
Below is Raila full statement that he delivered after meeting Maa community leaders at Okoa Kenya offices in Nairobi.
REMARKS OF RT. HON RAILA ODINGA AT MEETING WITH MAA COMMUNITY LEADERS; SEPTEMBER 27, 2017.
This was a meeting with leaders from the Maa community to discuss the August election and the next steps.
Their concern, the main issue exercising their mind is the question of what happened to the votes they cast on August 8th.
They are convinced that the results declared did not reflect their preferences and that leaders were imposed on them.
Those concerns are reflected in the results we shared with them from some of the polling stations that we were able to share with them from the IEBC’s own records.
One laughable one was a polling station in Narok North called NAITUYUPAKI PRIMARY SCHOOL IN OLOKURTO WARD.
There, registered voters were 507. But IEBC records indicate that votes cast for President were 5,527.
There are very many such cases that only confirm that there were no elections in Kenya in August. As long as IEBC, OT- Morpho, Safaricom, Al Ghurair are in charge of elections, nothing will change in October.
The question the Maa community is struggling with is the same one many other communities are asking; why should Kenyans expect IEBC to do the right thing in October? And this is the question Uhuru Kenyatta and his team do not want to answer.
The reason Uhuru and Ruto are defending the IEBC is because they know that is the only team that can steal votes for them.
Uhuru is telling us that IEBC is independent and should be left to do its work. But they are busy attacking judges of the Supreme Court who are also independent.
Yesterday, we said Kenyans are being treated to a huge conspiracy that incorporates local and global players including big businesses.
We specifically said Safaricom colluded with OT-Morpho and routed results to servers abroad but made no provision to return those results to Kenya.
Safaricom has today bought space in all print media to lament that it is being targeted. The question we asked has not been answered. Did Safaricom route results to server in Paris or anywhere in Europe? Did it route those results back to Kenya?
Big corporations are part and parcel of the killing of democracy in Kenya.
We will not allow Kenya to be the playground for forces that want to stifle our progress as a nation.
In fact, we are considering beginning a period of economic boycott of products and corporations that are working against the interests of the people of Kenya.
South Africans did it in their struggle against Apartheid. We may be forced to do it in our struggle for democracy and progress. That time is coming.
RT. HON RAILA ODINGA
HON. MUSALIA MUDAVADI
SEPTEMBER 27, 2017
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