Raila and supporters have cited a slew of reasons for calling for street protests against President William Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza government, which they have labeled illegitimate.
They accuse the government of nepotism, electoral fraud, taxation, and a failure to reduce the cost of living in the face of rising food prices.
“We begin by telling Ruto and Gachagua that we no longer have patience with an illegitimate regime that is too mean-spirited and incompetent to wage an all-out war on poverty and suffering,” Raila said.
The leader of the opposition has largely persuaded a younger generation of his supporters that they are fighting for a more democratic political system and a better economic future for themselves.
“We will be there for you until the end. “It is time for action; let us all come out, wherever we are, and make our voices heard and respected,” he said.
Raila has made it clear to his supporters that the defiance will take the form of peaceful picketing, protests, boycotts, strikes, petitions, disobedience, and sit-ins.
The mention of mass action brings to mind the Arab Spring, a series of anti-government protests and sustained street demonstrations that spread across much of the Arab world a decade ago.
The revolt began in Tunisia on December 17, 2010, when a young street vendor, Mohamed Bouazizi, ignited the revolt by setting himself ablaze to protest police harassment.
The uprising spread to five other Arab countries and by the end of the rebellion in December 2012, Tunisia’s Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Muammar Gaddafi (Libya), Hosni Mubarak (Egypt), and Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen had been ousted.
Human rights abuses, poverty, unemployment, dictatorship, and corruption topped the list of grievances leading to a change in leadership as regimes were held accountable even though conflicts still persist in countries like Syria.
Without drawing parallels with the Arab Spring in terms of scale, mass action is upon us in Kenya courtesy of a declaration by Azimio la Umoja One Kenya leader Raila Odinga. Monday, March 20 is the D day.
But like the Arab Spring, potential violence and possible arrests cannot be ruled out.
Protests are public demonstrations in which people voice their grievances and demand change. They can be peaceful or violent and they often involve marches, speeches, and chanting.
