Lamu Peace ambassadors and Muslim clerics from around the county are calling on opposition leader Raila Odinga to embrace dialogue instead of the ongoing mass action in the country.
Under the umbrella body of the Lamu Peace Ambassadors Committee and Muslim leaders under the Coast Interfaith Council of Clerics (CICC), they pleaded with the Azimio La Umoja-One Kenya coalition leader to call off the protests saying they would only destabilize the country.
Odinga has declared nationwide protests every single Monday and Thursday of the week against President William Ruto’s government over the high cost of living.
The protests are also meant to force the opening of the 2022 presidential election servers and to stop the process of appointing new members of the electoral agency, IEBC among other issues.
The Azimio leader has also said the protests are meant to reclaim their stolen supreme power following the August 2022 Presidential poll, where he insists to have won against Ruto.
The mass action will involve company boycotts, strikes, and sit-ins in government offices as announced by Odinga.
The peace committee chairperson Joseph Njoroge urged Lamu residents to ignore Raila Odinga’s call for protests.
Njoroge said as a committee, they believe there are better ways to address the current issues plaguing the country among them the high cost of living instead of having people take to the streets, a situation he says has continued to paralyze the economy.
“We are telling Raila Odinga to please call off the protests and pursue other avenues to address the issues he wants. We are asking him to peacefully seek an audience with the president for the good of all Kenyans. We are however telling the people of Lamu to boycott the protests,” said Njoroge.
The peace ambassadors said the country was already struggling economically and that it would be prudent for Kenyans to resist the mass action as it will only make a bad situation worse.
“We already have enough problems as a nation and such things will only serve to worsen the situation. Let us build Kenya and resist anything else that will damage our country. Let there be peace and stability so that Kenya can achieve its goals,” said Njoroge.
They rebuked the killings that have continued to happen since the commencement of the mass protests a few weeks back and said the buck stops with opposition leader Raila Odinga.
“We already have sporadic incidents of people being shot dead. Must we await until people are dying in hundreds so that we can understand that such actions will only breed disaster? We ask Odinga to embrace dialogue,” he posed.
The Coast Interfaith Council of Clerics-CICC chairperson Mohamed Abdulkadir called for unity in the country and urged Kenyans to focus their energies on only things that will help improve the country’s economy.
The cleric prevailed on all religions to pray for peace, unity and stability in the country.
“We heavily feel that these demos will not solve anything but rather, will actually destroy the peace and stability in our country. There is nothing like peaceful demos when people are pelting police with stones and looting. It’s not peaceful if a police officer is shooting someone dead. Let it stop,” said Abdulkadir.
Peace ambassador Esther Wanjiru called upon the youth to be wary of and resist politicians who want to use and misuse them for personal gain.
“Protests will not solve anything. I have observed that the majority of those taking part are the youth and I want to challenge them to wake up and smell the coffee. Let us not allow ourselves to be used for any anti-peaceful agenda,” said Wanjiru.