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Anxiety as Nasa leader Raila Odinga calls for work boycott

RAILA

Raila Odinga arrives to speak in the Mathare district of Nairobi on August 13, 2017. PHOTO/EPA/Kabir Dhanji

Nasa leader Raila Odinga on Sunday took his supporters down the path of civil disobedience, asking them to stay away from work on Monday awaiting his formal announcement of the next course of action on Tuesday.

The opposition leader’s move is expected to prolong the tension that has gripped Kenya’s major cities since last Tuesday’s election and Friday’s announcement of President Uhuru Kenyatta as winner.

Mr Odinga, who spoke from his Kibera slums stronghold in Nairobi, also defied growing international pressure that he recognises Mr Kenyatta as winner of Tuesday’s presidential poll, insisting it was rigged in the incumbent’s favour.

“We urge you not to go to work tomorrow (Monday) because Jubilee has deployed security agencies all over. We will show the way forward on Tuesday,” said Mr Odinga who appeared in public for the first time since the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) declared the results.

“We showed evidence before the election that a special unit of military was planning to eliminate our people and it has just happened,” he added.

Mr Odinga’s tough stance came on a largely quiet day after the violence that followed Friday’s election results announcement.

The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) said on Saturday that at least 24 people had died in election-related unrest. The opposition put the deaths higher at more than 100.

READ: Nasa MPs-elect urge supporters to be calm, vigilant

Diplomats and heads of foreign governments congratulated Mr Kenyatta on his re-election even as some urged Mr Odinga to concede.

“If you have evidence that the election was rigged, produce it ... Nasa has been changing its position in quite significant ways in the past week,” said an unnamed Western diplomat who spoke to the Reuters news agency.

“Most of the stuff they are alleging is not accurate.”

Initially, the coalition alleged the IEBC’s server had been hacked, and produced 50 pages of computer logs to support its claim.

READ: Jubilee to have upper hand in the House with more legislators

Nasa later said a secret source within the electoral agency had given them the true election results showing Mr Odinga was leading before indicating that paper forms from each polling station known as forms 34A and 34B used to tally the votes were fake.

James Orengo, who was Nasa’s alternate chief agent, said all that the party wants is peace and justice.

“We want peace, but peace must come with justice,” said Mr Orengo at the Kibera rally. The international community is keen to avoid a repeat of violence that followed 2007’s disputed election. Around 1,200 people were killed then and 600,000 displaced from their homes after political protests sparked ethnic violence.

Regional trade was paralysed and Kenya’s economy took years to recover. Some members of the opposition say they will neither back down nor take their grievances to court.

Britain and the European Union joined regional leaders in congratulating Mr Kenyatta on winning a second term.