UNTIL FINANCE ACT IS REPEALED, WE TAKE BACK OUR SOVEREIGN POWER

“UNTIL FINANCE ACT IS REPEALED, WE TAKE BACK OUR SOVEREIGN POWER:”

Fellow Kenyans,

“Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless.

What will you do on the day of reckoning, when disaster comes from afar?

To whom will you run for help? Where will you leave your riches?”

That is Isaiah 10:1-3.

Mr. William Ruto used to love this verse.

I hope he still does.

Dear Kenyans.

Last week, we were betrayed in this city.

Our representatives conspired with an Executive and abandoned us at our hour of need by voting for the punitive Finance Bill 2023.

Yesterday, Mr. William Ruto endorsed this betrayal by signing the Finance Bill into law.

We did everything that could be done to have Ruto listen to us and avert confrontation over taxes.

We petitioned the authorities and institutions; we demonstrated; we prayed in houses of worship; we begged to be heard; we sought amendments and we pleaded with our MPs to stand up for us.

Our petitions were thrown to the dustbin by Ruto’s tyrannical hands. He slighted our pleas and violently dispersed our petitioners.

Effective next week therefore, fuel tax rises from 8 percent to 16 percent. We will pay housing tax whether we need a house or not. The cost of basic goods, which has been weighing Kenyans down, is going up from next week, again.

At a time like this, silence would be a betrayal to the country. Silence would be treason.

We cannot be a nation of people who, having eyes, refuse to see, and, having ears, refuse to hear.

We have suffered a cruel betrayal of our trust and confidence in the ability of our representatives to protect us.  We must punish the traitors.

And we must force a repeal of the Finance Act.

But what happened this past week and yesterday is not just about the Finance Act.

This is about the re-emergence of a dictatorship under leaders who cut their teeth and honed their political skills in an infamous school of dictatorship.

We all know where William Ruto is coming from. We all know where Rigathi Gachagua is coming from.

In the run up to the vote on the Bill, more than 90 percent of Kenyans rejected it.

Even after MPs voted in favour of the Bill, polls continued to show that the majority of Kenyans did not like it.

However, true to his character as a dictator, Ruto proceeded as if Kenyans had not spoken and imposed punitive taxes on us, without our consent. That is contempt for the people.

In a democracy, few individuals cannot use government as their tool against the people.  The idea that only the wishes of Ruto and Gachagua matter in this country today, must attract a very heavy price.

Ruto is testing the limits of his illegitimate power. Ruto is testing whether we still have the will, energy and resolve to fight remnants of a dictatorship. After stealing our election last year, Ruto now thinks he can steal anything and get away with it.

We have to stop Ruto, and we have to do it now.

We must tell Ruto in no uncertain terms, that he has stolen enough for the owners to notice and he has no more room for stealing the wishes of the people.

This gathering must provide unmistakable response to Ruto and those who think like him, that we are willing and ready to do whatever it takes to roll back dictatorship.

This gathering must make it clear to Ruto and all those who are nostalgic about the dictatorship of the past that they will pay a heavy price for their unfortunate experiments.

We have some bad news for Mr. Ruto.

The betrayal in the city has seeped into every village in Kenya. It has united Kenyans better than any government ever would. While the betrayal has shattered our faith in government and Parliament, it has strengthened our faith in ourselves and our power.

Consequently, Ruto and all those who think like him are going to learn the painful way, never to mess with people’s FOOD, FUEL AND FREEDOM.

Ruto and his ilk are going to learn the hard way that Kenyans are fed up but not helpless.

In this time of desperation in the country, Ruto is selling illusions of hope to our people with phantom proposals that are meant to line the pockets of his cronies. It is wrong. It is cruel. It is evil.

The question we must ask ourselves is: Can a leader mean well for the people than the people do for themselves? The answer is No.

Kenyans must not trust that insidious smile that Ruto wears. It is a betrayer’s kiss. If Ruto meant well, he would have listened to the people.

He did not, and now, we must fight!

Fellow Kenyans;

A regime that has so blatantly ignored and betrayed us does not deserve our delegated power.  We are taking back our sovereign power. We are going to the trenches ourselves to fight for ourselves.

This regime does not deserve our obedience. We have no obligation to work for the success of a regime that has no interest in our success.

There is no other option left.  We must fight! We are going to fight; everywhere and anywhere; until the Finance Act is repealed.

We will adopt a series of acts of civil disobedience to force this regime to recognize that we, the people, are supreme.  Through civil disobedience, we will deny Ruto the taxes he thinks he can extort from us by force.

Dear Kenyans,

We have been abandoned by our leaders. We must now look out for each other and be our brothers and sisters keepers. Here, therefore, are my requests to you, my people of Kenya.

Let us embrace Tax Boycotts.

Let us deny Ruto the fuel tax by limiting consumption of petrol and diesel. One way to do this is to carpool. Let us arrange to make regular journeys in a single vehicle whenever possible.

Give each other a ride. Cut down on non-essential travel. Walk instead of driving whenever possible.

I appeal to all employers to allow their workers time to walk to and from work.

I appeal to matatu owners to support tax boycotts. While observing safety measures, maintain the current fare but double your carrying capacity as part of the civil disobedience.

Our police officers should support our call by allowing matatus to carry above capacity at current cost so that Kenyans can commute.

I appeal to businesses to disable or avoid Electronic Tax Registers, make nil returns on VAT and instead give discounts to customers. This way, we shall recover the VAT Ruto is taking illegally through fuel.

I appeal to employers to ignore the punitive deductions of employees’ salaries that will only line the pockets of Ruto's strategically placed cronies.

Mr. Ruto is driving us off the roads with high fuel prices. We must deny his officers the comfort of driving us off the road with their vehicles.

Let us deny government vehicles and motorcades the right of way that they take for granted. They may sound the sirens as they wish, but everyone must follow the traffic, except for ambulances.

Dear Kenyans.

We know the men and women who visited this unjust law on us. Punish the traitors. Let us name, shame, follow and isolate the traitors at every turn.

Let us picket their public and private offices and their homes, until they join the call to have the Finance Act repealed.

Today, and with absolute respect and humility, I am reaching out to the online community in the country and the diaspora. The famous Kenyans on Twitter, the content creators, the Tiktokers, I have a request to you.

Let us gather and share information about the traitors; their Twitter and other social media accounts, telephone numbers and email addresses and use these to show the oppressors that power belongs to us, the people.

Finally, I appeal to our performing artists.  Let our songs and music be a source of pain to the traitors. Let our music carry our disappointments and support the fight against Ruto and his contempt for us, until Ruto learns to respect the people.

Dear Kenyans;

In a democratic country that is founded upon the sovereignty of the people, whenever the arms of government, whether the Executive, the Legislature or the Judiciary, fall into the hands of men and women who use their delegated sovereign power to oppress the people and benefit themselves, then it becomes a right and a duty of the people, in pursuit of the common good and to assert their Sovereignty, to disobey those men and women, and their laws.

We are asserting our sovereignty. Civil disobedience begins with personal actions. We begin today, and we will continue progressively, discreetly and publicly, culminating in the official start of massive countrywide.

“Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees”.

Let us get to work. I thank you.

RT. HON. RAILA ODINGA;

27TH JUNE 2023.