Mwangi wa Iria: I will lead national resistance if IEBC locks me out of August polls
Murang’a Governor Mwangi Wa Iria.
Murang’a Governor Mwangi wa Iria has declared that he will transform his Usawa Kwa Wote political party into a national resistance movement if the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) bars him from contesting the presidency.
“This is not a game … we are not illiterate. I want to tell them one thing: I am in politics. They can play all their games, I will push them all to their end, and if at the end of the day they will not register me, I will convert my party into a resistance movement. They can be sure of that,” he said.
The abrasive two-term governor warned the IEBC that he knows how the courts work and that “they (IEBC) can play all their monkey games [but] we are not getting out of this … If they don’t … and if the courts come and bless their evils, which I know they won’t coz I know how the courts operate, we will have no choice but to become a resistance movement”.
This came after the IEBC rejected his contest papers, saying he had not presented the legally acceptable number of signatures. While the law demands that he present 48,000 signatures from 24 counties, IEBC chairman Wafula Chebukati said Wa Iria had compiled signatures from 22 counties, of which only those from five counties met the threshold.
He accused the IEBC of stealing some of his signatures “and selling them off to other aspirants … which is okay, that is what they don’t want to say … only using the term that we did not comply”.
Speaking on Monday evening on KTN TV, he said he would not accept any compromise to cede ground because “my bare minimum is to contest the presidency”.
The Department of Defence, in its course book, defines a resistance movement as “an organised effort by the civil population to disrupt civil order and stability”.
The Collins dictionary defines it as “a movement fighting for freedom … often secretly or illegally against an invader in an occupied country or against the country’s government, etc.”
Mr Wa Iria said he would mobilise his supporters to launch activities related to “national resistance … immediately it becomes apparent that he will be barred from making it to the ballot”.
His declaration recalls a similar action in 2017 by exiled lawyer Miguna Miguna to protest what he called an election stolen from ODM leader Raila Odinga. Persistent protests climaxed in the swearing-in of Mr Odinga as the “people’s president” on January 30, 2018.
While Mr Odinga and President Uhuru Kenyatta reached a truce on March 9, 2018, in what is called “the Handshake”, Mr Miguna was deported to Canada (he is a dual citizen of the two countries) on February 7, 2018 and his attempts to return to Kenya have failed.
Wa Iria, having no dual citizenship, is said to be risking incarceration instead of deportation if his resistance movement plays its script the Miguna way.
Mr Wa Iria accused the IEBC of “behaving like conmen and who screwed the 2017 General election to a point it was ordered repeated by the Supreme Court … I gave them all my signatures and they received them and signed acceptance … They never communicated to me about any inconsistencies until on the deadline that was 28th May”.
He added that “after I have created a commotion, IEBC realised that it was in danger and have written a letter to me generalizing that I have not complied … a general letter that looks like a love letter, reasons given are like a memorandum … they are not telling us about any single item that we did not comply with … I will sustain the pressure”.
Mr Wa Iria’s running mate, Alfayo Onyambu, echoed his boss’s sentiments by warning Mr Chebukati against “creating unnecessary tensions in the nation”.
He said Mr Chebukati should be careful not to “spoil … this peaceful country [and] let’s have a peaceful election by having Usawa Party [on] the ballot.”
