CORD Leader Raila Odinga announced that the coalition’s consultative meetings across the country will proceed as scheduled, following reports that the police and local political networks in the Rift Valley had denied CORD all venues in Eldoret.
Odinga addressed a press conference at ODM Headquarters, Orange House, where he criticized attempts by the Jubilee government to intimidate CORD by restricting access to certain regions based on what he described as trivial reasons.
The CORD Secretariat had previously issued a statement condemning the government after it emerged that the police had secretly revoked a license for CORD to hold a public rally at Eldoret’s 64 stadium.
According to the statement, "The Coalition for Reforms and Democracy has held four extremely successful and hugely peaceful rallies since May 31st, 2014 when thousands of people turned up to welcome its leader Hon. Raila Odinga back into the country from a three-month sabbatical in the US."
"The peaceful rallies have come against a background of grim predictions by government and Jubilee functionaries that they would breed chaos and insecurity in the country. In recent days, the administration has intensified its campaign against CORD rallies, blaming them wrongly for all the security failures that have afflicted the country in the last one year."
"This is despite the fact that the CORD rallies are barely a month old and have all been peaceful and attended by Kenyans from across the ethnic and political divide. CORD therefore condemns in very strong terms the alleged cancellation of its rally in Eldoret slated for Friday, June 27th, 2014. We condemn the maneuvers by sections of government to cancel our planned rally planned for Ntulele, Narok on Saturday, 28th June, 2014."
"We wish to clarify that we will proceed with both rallies as planned; Eldoret on Friday and Ntulele on Saturday. In the predictions of doom and chaos being fuelled by Jubilee, we see a deliberate effort by the government to pursue a self-fulfilling prophecy similar to the vile propaganda Kanu spread in the 1990s that multi-party politics would breed chaos, ethnic hatred and bloodshed."
"As Opposition Coalition, we stand committed to defending the constitutional right of Kenyans to free expression, association and assembly. We threaten no one and we expect no one to declare us as threats to peace or to threaten us."
"We therefore wish to advise our supporters and all Kenyans who value freedom and peace that we will proceed with all our rallies as scheduled; beginning with Eldoret on Friday, June 27, 2014. We call upon the National Government to respect the Constitution by providing security at all these CORD events."
The recovered account cited reporting by Nation.
