NASA’s People’s Assembly Organising Committee to proceed with December 12 plans

NASA leadership address the media they unveiled the Organising Committee for People's Assembly. They have vowed to continue with their mandate (Photo: Wilberforce Okwiri: Standard)

The opposition’s recently formed People’s Assembly Organising Committee has vowed to continue their work amidst what they termed as a brutal suppression of the opposition.

In a statement, the committee maintained they have had three meetings since its formation as they muscle preparations for an important session of the People’s Assembly to be held on December 12, 2017.

“We shall not succumb and let these gestapo tactics of the State make a return and become a new norm in Kenya,” the statement read in part.

The seven member committee was unveiled on December 1, 2017 to steer National Super Alliance (NASA) agenda of restoring democracy, just governance and leadership through a People’s Assembly.

However, barely two days after its formation, the committee’s head David Ndii was arrested for incitement to violence. The dramatic arrest at Leopard Beach Hotel in the Kenyan coast irked the opposition outfit and elicited sharp criticism from its leadership.

"They have tried so many ways to stop us - including threats, intimidation, arrests and even killing our people - but they don't know we have several ways of skinning a cat," NASA chief Raila Odinga said hours after the arrest.

“We condemn unreservedly the abduction, detention and subsequent arraignment in court on trumped up charges of Dr. David Ndii… the committee see Ndii’s incarceration as a cowardly attempt by an illegitimate government to intimidate its members in particular and the Kenyan people in general, with a view to scuttle the People’s Assembly,” the committee said.

Ndii who is fierce critic of the government has since been released from Pangani Police Station in Nairobi. This followed the directive of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Keriako Tobiko on a Sh10,000 police bond pending investigations.

Hitherto, the committee say they will release a detailed program to the constitutive session of the People’s Assembly on December 12, 2017 where they will among other things install their leadership.