ODM wants parliament reopened
ODM Thursday asked President Kibaki to re-open Parliament next week so that MPs can address the key issue of growing insecurity in the country. Party secretary-general Anyang’ Nyong’o said the House was the best placed institution to deal with the issue, which was sparked by the disputed presidential elections. “Parliament is the only body that could speak on behalf of all Kenyans on the rising cases of insecurity,” Prof Nyong’o said.
The ODM official said President Kibaki should summon Parliament urgently because the situation on the ground is grave. But in case the President ignores their plea, Prof Nyong’o, who is the Kisumu Rural MP said, it would show that the Government was not concerned about the safety and lives of all Kenyans.
Public transport vehicles mainly on highways from Nairobi to Western Kenya and those returning to the city are escorted by police since post-election violence broke up. Asked about their threats to revive mass action next week in the event that the on-going mediation talks chaired by former United Nations secretary-general, Mr Kofi Annan, collapse, the ODM official said it was on course. “Our call is for a peaceful mass action, but it might be violent if the police try to disrupt it using live bullets and tear gas canisters,” Prof Nyong’o said.
But Thursday, Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka asked the party to call off the threat to give the talks being spearheaded by Mr Kofi Annan to succeed. Prof Nyong’o was referring to police raids in Nairobi’s Kasarani constituency in the past 48 hours where armed officers were accused of raiding Mathare North and evicting illegal tenants. He accused Police Commissioner Hussein Ali of failing to address the security situation in the country, claiming that some parts of Nairobi and the country were being controlled by armed militias.
The official, who was addressing a press conference at ODM headquarters in Nairobi, claimed that four people, including an infant, had died in the raids. The ODM official reminded the Police Commissioner that under Kenyan laws, the police have no right to interfere in a dispute between a landlord and his tenants.
But the Police Commissioner said on Wednesday that the people being evicted had occupied the houses illegally. Mr Ali was emphatic that the row between the landlords and those occupying the houses was not about rent, but illegal occupation of the houses. Mr Ali said the landlords would have reported the matter to the rent tribunal if the dispute was about rent.
The Nation found out that house owners have been unable to collect monthly rent from new occupants who moved into the premises without their consent to replace those who fled at the onset of post-election violence. Prof Nyong’o’s views were echoed by the Kasarani MP, Ms Elizabeth Ongoro, who also asked why armed police were being used to raid the area in the night to evict the tenants and their families. The MP expressed fears that the police operation was being taken advantage of by some members of the militia to promote violence and insecurity in the area. Said Ms Ongoro: “I believe that the issue is beyond rent distress and it is being used by some other people for a political agenda.” Asked whether she had approached the Police Commissioner about the issue, the MP said she had not done so.
Daily Nation
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