NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 19 – The Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) has refuted claims by Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta that Prime Minister Raila Odinga failed to stop his supporters from engaging in violence after the 2007 elections until he was made the PM.
The coalition in a statement from the chairman of its National Coordinating Committee Franklin Bett, insisted that Odinga talked to his supporters before the international community intervened.
“CORD is shocked with the ferocious remarks made by the Jubilee Alliance’s presidential candidate Uhuru Kenyatta claiming that the CORD presidential candidate Raila Odinga failed to stop the 2007-2008 post election violence. Indeed, it was out of Odinga’s love for Kenya that he urged the ODM supporters to be calm days before the international community moved in to prevent Kenya from going to the dogs,” Bett asserted in the statement.
Kenyatta while on a campaign tour of Kisii on Monday alleged that the Prime Minister: “Failed to prevail upon his supporters to end the violence and that he only did so after he got his position in government.”
According to Bett, the disputed tally of presidential results was the main cause of the violence and Kenyatta should not take the nation back to 2007.
“CORD would like to remind Kenyatta of the contents in Judge Johann Kriegler report to the effect of what triggered the post election violence. We would not want to go back there, but Kenyatta should respond to this very simple question “Why would you start something and want someone else to stop it?” Bett insisted.
“I have no problem with the Prime Minister, but he refused to speak out against post-election violence until he got his half loaf of bread,” alleged Kenyatta while addressing a rally in Nyansiongo in Nyamira County.
According to the Commission of Inquiry into Post Election Violence (CIPEV) some violence was spontaneous while there was also organised violence based on many factors the Justice Philip Waki led commission analysed.
On the other hand, Justice Kriegler who led the Independent Review Commission (IREC) in probing the disputed polls of 2007 found out that the election was marred with many irregularities to the extent that it was impossible to tell who between President Mwai Kibaki and Odinga won the hotly disputed presidential poll.
Source:capitalfm.co.ke
