NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 20 – Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Constitutional Affairs Minister Martha Karua on Friday dismissed calls for fresh elections by the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK).
Speaking after a meeting with representatives of political parties, Ms Karua said that there will be no elections until the constitutional reform process is complete.
“We need the review process; we need to go through the constitutional review before we can have elections,” she stressed.
“If we don’t have those fundamental changes before going to another general election we may very well be condemning ourselves to disintegration.”
Prime Minister Odinga said the church leaders had no basis to call for an election, especially now that the government was yet to constitute a credible electoral body after the defunct ECK was disbanded in December, following public outcry over impartial officials.
He censured the religious leaders for propagating populist politics at the expense of critical national issues and defended the government’s track record since the inception of the coalition 11 months ago.
“The government has done tremendous work against very many odds and cannot stand to be blamed for hunger or bad economic times. We took over when the global economic environment was in recession and farmers were unable to plant during the post poll crisis,” he said.
The PM was speaking at a reception held in honour of the son of renowned America civil and human rights crusader Martin Luther King Jr on Thursday evening,
King Jr III is in the country to unveil activities for his late father’s foundation ‘Realising the Dream”.
NCCK on Tuesday demanded fresh elections on the grounds that the grand coalition government had failed to offer leadership.
In a hard-hitting statement, the church leaders accused the President of remaining silent as Kenyans continued to suffer, while the Premier has remained ineffective.
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