Raila praises youth for their role in violence

Daily Nation
Jan 26, 2009

Prime Minister Raila Odinga on Sunday said the Interim Electoral Commission will start its work in two months. Mr Odinga said the new commission would register voters afresh and issue new cards.

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He said Parliament was moving with speed to ensure that the team was in place to restore voter confidence. He revisited the conduct of the disbanded Electoral Commission of Kenya and its chairman Mr Samuel Kivuitu, saying they mismanaged the 2007 elections.

Mr Odinga said there were 1.2 million dead voters in the register and were allowed to “vote”.

“Some people who had died resurrected on the voting day and went to the polls then returned to their graves after voting,” said Mr Odinga.

He asked the crowds to join him in condemning Mr Kivuitu and support his call for the former commissioners not to get a send-off package.

However, the Nation learnt that a budget to be approved by the Cabinet had been prepared to offer the ex-commissioners a hefty send-off package.

The PM praised the Kibera youth for coming to his rescue during the post- election violence when they made the country ungovernable, thereby forcing negotiations for the current Coalition Government.

“When you uprooted the railway line, it sent a strong message that things were getting out of hand and even Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni asked for my help to restore order,” he added.

He was speaking at a rally in Kibera after touring the area. Mr Odinga told the people that he accepted to negotiate and have the victory shared because of the lives that were being lost in the process.

The PM turned the heat on the media, which he accused of trying to implicate him in corruption.

“My record is clean and I am as white as snow. I will not accept to work with corrupt people or condone a government that is infested by corruption,” Mr Odinga said.

The residents interrupted Mr Odinga’s speech when he touched on the slum upgrading programme as they disagreed with him on the mortgage programme.

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