Reds preach No in Nairobi

NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 1 - Cabinet Minister William Ruto on Sunday led the No campaign in Dagoretti grounds where he once again called on Kenyans to reject the proposed law.

Mr Ruto said the country needed a just and fair Constitution which was not the case with the proposed constitution.

“The contest is between the people on the other side who tell us they are tired, who tell us they have waited for too long, who tell us they do not want to read the contents of the draft and those of us who say we not only want a new constitution, (but) we want a just and fair constitution for our country,” he said.

The Minister said that the proposed Constitution which goes to a referendum on Wednesday had a lot of ambiguous clauses which was unacceptable.

“We are saying as a country that believes in the living God and as a nation that is God-fearing, we will not agree to ambiguous clauses on morality and same sex marriages. We need to be clear, we need to be straight, and we need to be absolutely in the know on what we really want,” he stated.

“Let’s not be blinded and pass a Constitution that will divide the country,” he said.

The Minister who is the de facto leader of the red campaign accused the Yes team of frustrating their efforts to hold the rally on Sunday. He claimed that they were locked out of all the grounds in Nairobi despite having a permit to hold the rally.

“We have reached this point today in this ground after a lot of difficulty. We were locked out of Kisii stadium, we have been locked out of every other ground in Nairobi by our competitors and today even these grounds (Dagoretti), I had to speak to the commissioner of police this morning to allow us,” he said.

“Those on the other side were against this meeting and we are telling them that they may have the international support, they may have the government machinery and money but let them know we are on this side and we are with the living God,” he said.

The Cabinet Minister also faulted the devolution clause saying the proposed counties would bring unfairness, inequality and marginalisation.

He also revisited the land issue and said it needed to be handled carefully. He said the constitution needed to have a land chapter that was not ambiguous, controversial or contentious.

“When we had issues of half an acre of rock in our own country in Migingo, we had to stop the business of parliament to discuss why the military has not gone to defend our half an acre of rock in Migingo and therefore land issues are very critical in our country and everywhere else around the world,” he said.

Other leaders present at the rally were former Member of Parliament Bishop Margaret Wanjiru, Roads Assistant Minister Wilfred Machage, Mutito MP Kiema Kilonzo and other church leaders.