Azimio leader Raila Odinga launched an aggressive signature-gathering campaign on Friday with the goal of “withdrawing the country’s sovereignty” from President William Ruto and his team.
By the end of the month, Mr. Odinga said he hopes to have gathered at least 10 million signatures.
In response to new tax policies announced by President Ruto, he started the exercise at Nairobi’s famed Kamkunji Grounds.
To expedite the process of escalating the post-election crisis resulting from the August 9 elections, the Azimio La Umoja One Kenya Coalition party sent its luminaries to various regions of the nation on Friday.
Since then, Mr. Odinga has proclaimed the Kenya Kwanza government to be invalid and urged his supporters to stop recognising Dr. Ruto and other government officials.
“I will be the first to sign this petition to remove Ruto from power. I want by next month, we get to 10 million signatories and get this rogue government out of power,” Mr Odinga said.
“We want to tell them the sovereign power does not belong to MPs but the people and the people are tired and they’re going to take back their power. We also demanded that the cost of living be reduced. Instead, the government has added all the taxes they can think of to oppress Kenyans,” charged Mr Odinga.
Martha Karua, his running mate in the August election, was in her native county of Kirinyaga to lead the opposition’s backers in gathering signatures.
In Machakos, Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka was also anticipated to be in charge of the exercise while Wycliffe Oparanya, the ODM deputy party leader, was in charge of another team in Kakamega.
At Mumias bus park, Mr. Oparanya led the opposition supporters in a demonstration against the authorities.
Robert Mbui, a Kathiani MP and ally of Mr. Musyoka, stated that the coalition is working hard to gather signatures in support of an impeachment motion against President Ruto.
20-40 million signatures
“We want to launch a programme to collect 20-40 million signatures to impeach those holding offices,” said Mr Mbui.
However, Article 145 of the Constitution does not mention gathering signatures as a requirement for impeaching a president.
The constitution provides that “a member of the National Assembly, supported by at least a third of all the members, may move a motion for the impeachment of the President.”
The Speaker must notify the Speaker of the Senate of such a resolution within two days if it receives support from at least two-thirds of the National Assembly’s members.
Nevertheless, the President will continue to carry out his duties until the Senate’s proceedings are concluded, which will result in the creation of an 11-member special committee to look into the President’s accusation.
Recently, Dr. Ruto scoffed at the opposition’s attempts to have him removed from office.
In an interview with France 24 in Paris, President Ruto said the opposition should stop entertaining any thoughts of toppling him.
He said, although the August 9 poll was closely contested, Kenyans settled on him to lead the country in the next five years.
“I have no problem with Raila Odinga. I have no problem with him organising protests. There are protests here in Paris. I have just asked Raila and the company not to engage in violence and destruction of property. That is all because we are a democracy,” Dr Ruto said.
