Odinga ‘inaugurates’ himself as president
Kenya’s main opposition leader, Raila Odinga, has declared himself the ‘people’s president’ at a controversial ‘swearing-in’ ceremony in the capital Nairobi.
Thousands of his supporters attended the event, despite a government warning that it amounted to treason.
The authorities shut down TV stations to prevent live coverage of the event.
President Uhuru Kenyatta was sworn in for a second term last November.
He won an election re-run in October, but Odinga boycotted it.
Elections were first held in August but the courts ordered a re-run, saying Kenyatta’s victory was marred by irregularities.
Holding a Bible in his right hand at a park, Odinga declared that he was answering to a ‘high[er] calling to assume the office of the people’s president of the Republic of Kenya’.
“People had had enough of election rigging and the event was a step towards establishing a proper democracy in the East African state,” Odinga told a cheering crowd.
Speaking earlier to Kenyan broadcaster KTN, Odinga said his ‘swearing-in’ was intended to ‘show the world that what we are doing is legal, constitutional and not something you can remotely describe as a coup’./BBC
