Raila demands President Ruto and his government resign

Azimio La Umoja leader Raila Odinga wants President Ruto and all leaders in the Kenya Kwanza government to resign.

In a passionate speech on Monday at Nairobi’s Kamukunji Gardens, Odinga maintained that the  August 2022 General Election was stolen in favour of Dr Ruto.

He said the Kenya Kwanza government does not have the mandate to rule and called it “illegitimate”.

“We demand that the Kenya Kwanza government resigns since it has neither the mandate nor the ability to govern the country,” said Odinga.

While rallying his supporters to oppose the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) party rule, the opposition leader said he and his supporters do not recognise Ruto as the president of Kenya, alongside all officials in office with him.

“We do not, and will not recognise the Kenya Kwanza regime and we consider the Kenya Kwanza government illegitimate,” he said.

The Azimio leader spoke to the recent dossier by a purported Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) whistleblower claiming that Odinga won the August 9 election.

IEBC Chairperson Wafula Chebukati, on August 15, 2022, declared Ruto the president-elect after garnering 7,176,141 votes, representing 50.49 per cent of the total votes cast, while Odinga got 6,942,930 votes, representing 48 per cent of the votes cast.

The report however claims Odinga won the polls after garnering 8,170,355 votes ahead of Ruto who reportedly managed 5,919,973 votes.

According to Odinga, Chebukati, CEO Marjan Hussein and two commissioners, Adi Guliye and Boya Molu, “formed a cartel within IEBC to cook their own results”.

He similarly faulted the Supreme Court for throwing out his petition challenging Ruto’s win, saying the court was equally compromised by so-called cartels.

“We know what happened next at the Supreme Court. A compromised court failed to declare the true victor, annul the elections or order a rerun because of the glaring violations of the law and the constitution by the IEBC,” said Odinga.

“The Supreme Court itself was captured by cartels that had also captured the IEBC. The two most critical institutions to elections in Kenya were central to the rigging of the 2022 elections.”

He issued a “non-negotiable” demand that the entire IEBC infrastructure and last year’s election records to be audited by a forensic body.

Odinga urged his supporters to also reject the “empty promises” made by Ruto’s UDA regime, accusing the government of implementing “punitive policies” to make life unbearable for Kenyans.

“UDA is resorting to these policies because it was not ready and it did not get any mandate to govern,” he said, citing the high cost of living.

“We call Kenyans to resist and demand removal of the punitive taxes in unga, fuel, bus fare, paraffin, school fees, textbooks and electricity.”

Odinga further promised to assemble another rally at the Jacaranda Gardens in Nairobi, saying he has “a heavy heart and a lot of fear for my country”.