Azimio top brass missing in action as police take on protesters

Azimio la Umoja One Kenya leader Raila Odinga. He has this week maintained a low profile. [Collins Kweyu, Standard]

The Azimio la Umoja One Kenya leadership stayed away from the anti-government demonstrations on Thursday, keeping Kenyans guessing about their game plan even as police hunt for them hit a dead end.

However, some Azimio leaders were not lucky. A number of allies of opposition chief, Raila Odinga were arrested even as the leaders termed day one of demos a huge success. 

For weeks Azimio leaders have kept their operations under wraps, with police chasing ruses. On Thursday, the Azimio top brass was missing in action, with their supporters nonetheless heeding their call to protest the high cost of living.

Raila has this week maintained a low profile, with his most recent social media post made on Monday when he promised a "game-changing maandamano."

The post features an image of the former prime minister in a boardroom meeting with Azimio lawmakers.

As questions over his whereabouts swirled all over social media, a video clip of him playing Ajua with peers went viral online. The Standard could not establish whether the clip was recorded yesterday.

During last week's demos, Raila also went missing, surfacing to issue a press statement at the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Foundation in Nairobi.

The unpredictability of the ODM leader's movements had police chasing shadows in the initial wave of Azimio protests, only showing up to disperse crowds that had gathered.

But on a day that promised the "game-changing" protests, the opposition coalition was dealt a blow through the arrest of its members, even as it scored a goal in paralysing activities in major towns across the country.

This was also a day when five people were killed in the protests, one in Nairobi's Mathare area, one in Wote in Makueni, one in Kisumu and two in Nakuru.

Later in the day, Raila was quoted thanking his supporters for heeding his call and at the same time counselled them to end the demonstrations by 5am Thursday so that they could resume today. The Azimio leader also said his bodyguard, Maurice Ogeto had been released.

On Tuesday evening, Embakasi East MP Babu Owino was arrested at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport as he landed back from Mombasa, the first in a string of arrests of opposition politicians.

Azimio alleged that some of its members had been abducted. "Ken Chonga MP Kilifi South and Teddy Mwambire, Speaker Kilifi County have been arrested and detained in an unknown place," Narc Kenya leader Martha Karua said.

Police officers arrest a man during Azimio la Umoja's anti-government protests in Mathare, Nairobi on July 19, 2023. [Collins Kweyu, Standard]

She said police had also arrested ward representatives Wilfred Odallo (Mabatini), Redson Onyango (Ngei) and Erick Otieno and Anthony Otsula, both of whom are budget officers at the Nairobi County Assembly.

She also alleged the "arrest/abduction" of Raila's aide Dennis Onyango and bodyguard Ogeta, who were taken by unknown people.

"These illegal arrests and or abductions are a desperate attempt by the illegitimate (President William) Ruto regime to paralyse Azimio and its top leaders and to sabotage the exercise of our constitutional right to peaceful demonstrations," she said.

"We demand immediate release of those detained noting that their detention is not only malicious but unlawful. If not so, they would have been taken before the nearest courts and charged immediately," she added.

ODM Director of Communications Philip Etale claimed Makadara MP George Aladwa was arrested moments after he arrived from Mombasa for an official engagement on Tuesday, and his whereabouts are unknown.

"Police have a few minutes ago raided the house of Raila Odinga's spokesman Dennis Onyango, along Mbagathi Way ransacked it, and arrested him. His son says they have driven off with him in two Subaru vehicles," Etale tweeted.

The arrests come in the wake of claims that Azimio leaders had their security detail withdrawn in an alleged plan aimed at leaving them exposed to "assassination" attempts. On Tuesday, Azimio leaders claimed the security agencies had been surveilling their homes and offices, further alleging that a killer police squad was on their tail.

Over the last few weeks, there has been immense pressure by Kenya Kwanza functionaries to have Raila arrested for calling for demonstrations. 

Later in the day, Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna joined protesters in Kibra who futilely tried to access the Joseph Kang'ethe Grounds, but where they were dispersed by the police. In Nairobi, he was the only Azimio leader The Standard spotted at the demos.

Peter Ochieng, 32, nursing gunshot wounds at Oruba Nursing Home. He was shot in the leg during anti-government protests on July 19, 2023. [Caleb Kingwara, Standard]

But National Assembly Minority Leader Opiyo Wandayi said Azimio leaders were "very much part of the operation".

"This operation is both overt and covert and all of us were part of it, playing different roles. This is a matter of strategy," Wandayi told The Standard.

Sifuna called for an end to police brutality. "The arming of uniformed Kenyans against innocent unarmed citizens constitutes a crime against humanity and perpetrators need to know that in the fullness of time, they will be held individually accountable," Sifuna said.

He added: "I have asked, on different fora, for the Ruto regime to find someone, anyone, it can listen to, if we in Azimio are, in their view, mere purveyors of nuisance. It is not possible for everyone to be wrong and only this fraudulent regime is right," the ODM secretary general added. 

Much of Nairobi city remained deserted as Kenyans kept off for fear of protests. In several neighbourhoods, police and protesters clashed, confrontations characterised by thick clouds of tear gas fumes and rocks littered along the roads.

“We condemn the excessive use of force by the police notably in Mathare, Kibra, Embakasi, Kamukunji, Mombasa, Kilifi, Kisii, Kisumu and indeed the entire country to disperse lawful and peaceful demonstrations,” said Karua in a statement.

She also condemned withdrawal of security detail for Raila and Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka. President Ruto suffered a similar fate while serving as Deputy President under former President Uhuru Kenyatta which saw the scaling down of security personnel guarding his residences in Nairobi and Eldoret following political fallout with his then boss.

[Additional report by Edwin Nyarangi and Noel Nabiswa]