Keep off Kenyan politics, Odinga tells diplomats

Keep off Kenyan politics, Odinga tells diplomats

National Super Alliance leader Raila Odinga has told off foreign envoys for asking him to recognise Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto as the duly elected president and deputy president.

Speaking on Sunday, Mr. Odinga told the diplomats led by US Ambassador to Kenya Robert Godec and UK High Commissioner Nic Hailey to keep off Kenyan politics.

According to Odinga, the diplomats are only interested in furthering their countries’ agenda but not democracy.

“The colonial era is long gone and we will not allow any form of neo-colonialism. They (diplomats) are only interested in their business interests. They don’t care about democracy. Kenyans have not dictated to the US, UK or Germany who their president or prime minister should be. So let them not tell us who we should recognise as the president,” said Odinga.

“Kenya is an independent country and Kenyan problems will be resolved by the Kenyan people. They can only be but observers,” he added.

The opposition chief, who was accompanied NASA legislators, was speaking in Lang’ata, Nairobi when he visited victims of the Kijiji fire tragedy and donated items including food stuffs, blankets and mattresses.

In a joint statement, eleven diplomats, urged the National Super Alliance to first recognise Kenyatta and Ruto as the duly elected leaders as a starting point for dialogue to end the political turmoil in the country.

The diplomats termed the ‘swearing in’ of Odinga as the ‘People’s President’ a violation of the Constitution, even as they criticized the government crackdown on opposition leaders.

“A father of multi-party democracy has made unsubstantiated claims about elections and unilaterally sworn himself as “President”, in deliberate disregard of the Constitution for which he so proudly fought,” read part of the statement.

“The Opposition must accept the decision of the Supreme Court to uphold the election of October 26.  Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto are the legitimate President and Deputy President of Kenya.  The Opposition needs to accept this as the basis for the dialogue that it and many Kenyans want.  Stoking and threatening violence are not acceptable, nor are extra-Constitutional measures to seize power.”

Other envoys included in the statement were Ambassador of Germany Jutta Frasch, the  High Commissioner for Australia Alison Chartres, Sara Hradecky (Canada), Mette Knudsen (Denmark), Anna Jardfelt  (Sweden), Victor Conrad Rønneberg (Norway), Frans Makken (Netherlands), Tarja Fernández (Finland), Kim Ramoneda (France).

They urged the Government to protect democratic institutions and adhere to the Constitution and the rule of law at all times, highlighting the need to comply fully with court orders as well as protect the freedom of expression, freedom of the media, and all civil rights.

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Uhuru kenyatta raila odinga Robert Godec Diplomats on NASA swearing in

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