Raila Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) has criticized South African opposition politician Julius Malema for condemning Kenyan protests.
ODM reacted angrily to Malema’s comments that anti-government protests were disrupting Kenya and destabilizing the country’s peace, claiming that the Economic Freedom Fighters party leader had succumbed to Kenya Kwanza’s “propaganda” about the demonstrations.
Raila’s party, according to ODM Secretary-General Edwin Sifuna, is fighting for a more accommodating democratic space, accusing President William Ruto of entrenching a dictatorship in Kenya.
“It is clear that Comrade Malema, watching Kenya from a distance, is not familiar with the delicate sociopolitical fault lines in our nation, and makes the faulty assumption that his approach in fighting injustices in South Africa can be replicated here,” Sifuna begins the letter.
He noted that Kenya’s problem was that those involved in the struggle had never risen to power as a result of circumstances that stifled free will.
“If Comrade Malema lived in a nation perennially led by collaborators and former home guards, thieves and liars, who not only steal elections at will but routinely send police to shoot unarmed civilians in a re-enaction of South Africa’s own Sharpeville Massacre of 1960 or the Marikana Massacre of 2012, he would hold different views,” the Nairobi senator said.
On Saturday, during the EFF’s 10-year anniversary, Malema continued his attack on Raila and his coalition’s demonstrations.
“We want to make a call in Kenya, especially to Comrade Raila Odinga. Stop doing what you are doing. Do not disrupt Kenya… President William Ruto was democratically elected in Kenya,” Malema said in a stinging speech that also highlighted the socialist struggle with which the EFF identifies.
