Kenya is a mature democracy and the opposition should table issues it has with the Kenya Kwanza administration for discussion instead of holding demonstrations, Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja said on Monday.
Sakaja said he doesn’t think the Azimio La Umoja One Kenya coalition, which under the leadership of opposition leader Raila Odinga is in the middle of nationwide rallies to oppose President William Ruto’s regime, has “a good reason to demonstrate.”
“They should not be doing it,” the governor said, “The things they are complaining about are things which can be solved in Parliament.”
Odinga on Thursday declared the start of countrywide mass action after the lapse of a 14-day ultimatum he had given President Ruto’s administration to lower the cost of living.
But Sakaja argues the cost of living is “gradually coming down” and that the opposition “should give the government time.”
“Demonstrations will only destabilise the economy more yet it has been stabilising. It will not be beneficial to those they are trying to help,” he said.
“Peaceful demonstrations are legal and anybody can hold them, but the cost and what might arise from it is not good for us. We are a mature democracy that can hold dialogues, discuss, go to Parliament and discuss,” he added.
‘Ruto must go’
Amid chants of ‘Ruto must go’, Odinga last week told his supporters to join in the movement he says will help liberate the nation from the Kenya Kwanza government he has labelled illegitimate.
“We can’t keep living on false promises and that when we keep taking painkillers long enough, you will cease killing the pain…Kenya is ripe for the people’s Movement for the Defence of Democracy. The process begins today, here and now, Ruto must go!,” he said.
The former prime minister is set to culminate the nationwide rallies he calls “a peaceful defiance against the government” with a mega rally at the capital on March 20.
“On that day, our supporters throughout the country shall stage a massive procession in Nairobi for a legitimate and inclusive movement, save that date. The Movement for for the Defence of Democracy has now started,” he said then.
