CORD should name flag bearer to avert fallout, says Senator Omar

Mombasa Senator Hassan Omar (second right in the second column) joins Muslim faithfuls in evening prayers during Iftar at Mombasa Sports Club, Mombasa County on Saturday 2nd July 2016. [Photo/Kelvin Karani/Standard]

Wiper Democratic Movement now wants the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) to name its presidential candidate immediately to stem falling out.

Wiper Secretary General Hassan Omar yesterday said Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) Secretary General Ababu Namwamba and Vice Chairman Paul Otuoma were dependable and the coalition should have ironed out the issues they raised.

“I want to support what my party chairman said that we should nominate our presidential candidate as fast as possible to avoid these fall outs and embark on the campaigns,” Omar said in Mombasa yesterday.

He also said advocate Willie Kimani’s killing should be a wake-up call to Kenya’s middle class to fight against state oppression and police brutality.

Omar said the middle class should not sit quietly in their comfort zones. He criticised them for remaining quiet over extrajudicial killings of Muslim youth in the Coast and other parts of country.

He supported calls for resignation of Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinnet, Deputy IG Samuel Arachi and Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery over the killings.

“If we will not force these people to resign and be punished, then we will not stop these wanton killings,” said Omar.

He also criticised unnamed lawyers for justifying or supporting the killing of suspected terrorists, adding that Kenyans should “value all lives whether of a Muslim or non-Muslim”.

“We have seen a lawyer writing to justify the killing of terror suspects. When we were crying and complaining about police killings in Mombasa other Kenyans kept quiet. We should condemn all killings with equal zeal whether it affects a Muslim or non-Muslim,” he said.

Omar aid the three should not only resign because of the recent killings, but because of the extrajudicial killings that have occurred in the country, especially at the Coast.

He said Kenyans should advance my-brother’s-keepers ideology and fight oppression, regardless of the person or which part of the country it happens.

The Mombasa senator urged residents to remain united in the face of terrorism and extremism out to divide the county’s cosmopolitan society. “Mombasa is a cosmopolitan county and all tribes and people of different religions have lived peacefully. We want to remain that way because this is our home,” he said.

The bodies of lawyer Kimani, his client Josephat Mwenda and taxi driver Joseph Muiruri were retrieved from the Ol-Donyo Sabuk River in Machakos county on Friday.

Boinnet has linked the murder of the three to police officers Fredrick Leiman, Stephen Chebulet and Silvia Wanjiku who were arrested yesterday and are being held.

Law Society of Kenya (LSK) president Isaac Okero has called for public protests starting tomorrow if the senior police officers do not resign.

Omar described Kimani as a strong defender of the rights of the oppressed.

During the meeting at Mombasa Sports Club, Muslim clerics and scholars addressed the gathering, asking them to support cohesion in the face of terror threats.

He said Mombasa residents have no option but to work together to tackle social ills such as extremism and terrorism, given the county is a cosmopolitan area.

He said that Muslims have suffered most in the hands of terrorism, citing the recent killings in Turkey and yesterday’s in Bangladesh.

“We are meeting here so that we, through our clerics and scholars, can educate people about Islam that it’s about peace,” said Omar.