Police cancel Azimio’s Murang’a town hall meeting

A town hall meeting organised by the Azimio la Umoja Coalition, and was set to be held in Murang’a County on Thursday, April 20 has been cancelled.

Murang’a police commander David Mathiu rejected Azimio’s request to hold the meeting, saying that police are already deployed elsewhere and they needed an earlier notification in order to prepare.

According to Mathiu, a notice needs to have been submitted four days before, and Azimio presented it on Tuesday, two days before their planned meeting.  As a result, the meeting will not be allowed to take place.

The town hall meeting was set to be attended by Azimio-allied leaders including Raila Odinga, Kalonzo Musyoka, Martha Karua, George Wajackoyah and Mwangi wa Iria and Jeremiah Kioni.

The former Murang’a governor was at Murang’a police station on Tuesday to submit the notice, saying the meeting will be purely an engagement forum between the leaders and the locals with the main agenda being seeking inclusion in the government.

"The meeting is on. I want to tell police officers that we were not seeking permission. According to the constitution, we are not supposed to seek permission from police," the former Murang'a Governor said. 

The event would be Azimio’s inaugural town hall meeting in the Mt. Kenya region, days after holding another in Nairobi on April 13.

Trade unions, farmers’ associations, small businesses, civil society organisations,veterans, human rights activists, intellectuals and faith-based organisations were among parties invited to the meeting.