NASA presidential candidate Raila Odinga has accused the government of dragging the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF), saying more than 100 had been deployed to Kakamega. Raila claimed that the soldiers have been selected to rig the August 8 general election.
He said at a press statement today the opposition leaders are not accusing the military but appealing to them to honour their code and be neutral. “KDF soldiers are being trained for recruitment as polling and presiding officers to help rig the election,” he told a press conference in Nairobi.
Several officers are being hosted in Kakamega at the former provincial HQ, he said, noting that they are being prepared to become returning officers. Raila further claimed the soldiers are training civilians in a scheme similar to what was allegedly done at the same venue before the 2007 general election.
“We are challenging the national government and leaders of security forces to explain why military officers are training civilians,” he said.
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NASA PRESS STATEMENT: JUBILEE DRAGGING SECURITY APPARATUS INTO ELECTION RIGGING PLAN:
Since the High Court ruled in April that presidential election results declared at the constituency are final, the jubilee leadership has been involved in a series of activities that we find to be extremely disturbing with regard to the upcoming elections.
We are here to challenge the jubilee leadership to come clean on these matters.
First, a series of meetings of officers from the National Intelligence Service have taken place with the sole purpose of coming up with a plan to help Jubilee retain power at all costs, particularly in the event that the courts maintains that results declared at the constituency level are final.
Jubilee appears to be putting all its hopes on the old centralised tallying at the Bomas of Kenya that enabled them to doctor and change results. It is now turning to using Intelligence and security officers to influence the august elections.
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The first meeting of the NIS and other groups from the national security sector took place at Lake Naivasha Lodge and the Great Rift Valley Lodge soon after the High Court ruling. Subsequent to that meeting, top officers of the various security formations in have held frequent consultations under the chairmanship of former Chief of General Staff Julius Waweru Karangi to actualise the plan developed by the NIS.
Those who have attended these meetings include the Commander of the Army, Commander of the Kenya Air Force, the Commandant of the National Defence College, the Director General NIS, and the director of CID.
Out of these meetings the following developments have followed:
A training of members of the Kenya Defence Force on crowd control currently going on at in Embakasi military barracks. Training by the military for Administration Police officers, County Commanders and Regional Co-ordinators for unspecified roles.
Recruitment of 120 military officers from each barrack and unit for unspecified special operations. These trainings are all currently underway at Embakasi barracks. They have every semblance with what was done at the same venue in the lead up to the 2007 general elections in which APs were later dispersed as election officials and poll agents for the Party of National Unity.
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We are also in possession of information that further to the above activities, several military officers are currently being hosted in Kakamega at the former provincial premises. We have information that these military officers are being prepared so as to be recruited by the IEBC as polling officials in the on-going recruitment process.
We are inclined to believe that the above activities are meant to subvert the will of the people in the upcoming elections. We are challenging the national government and the leadership of the security organs in the country to explain to Kenyans why a select group of military officers would be involved in training civilians like county commanders and regional coordinators.
We also want to appeal to our military to remain faithful to the traditions of this country and their call of duty and refuse to be dragged into politics and instead focus on keeping our country safe. That has been our proud tradition as a country. This generation must keep it going.
JUNE 20, 2017.
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