Ndii and the Secession Talk: The country has been afire with political talk since the IEBC declared Uhuru Kenyatta winner of the hotly contested August 2017 presidential polls. A section of the nation feels the status quo should be maintained at whatever cost while the other half feel aggrieved. The sense of alienation was further perpetuated by the brutal nature in which the government responded to critics, including injuring and shooting dead some protestors as well as the attempt to silence human rights bodies.
Yesternight Ndii was on record in an NTV interview saying that NASA will call for mass action should the supreme court fail to consider the voluminous evidence the coalition provided. The opposition, through press conferences and social media, have severally pointed out to several cases of apparent electoral malpractices they believe may have handed Uhuru Kenyatta the presidency unfairly.
A few hours earlier, Ndii shared a document titled “Petition for Self-Determinantion” which also included a link to an online site where people can sign a petition in support of secession from Kenya. However, Ndii was quick to point out that he is not the author of the document and that he only shared it. Nonetheless, he continued to point out that the politics of separatism is fairly normal and went ahead to cite the Scottish referendum and Brexit.
The Petition for Self Determination can be signed here https://t.co/2Wcq1RyFmw’s-petition-for-self-determination/
— David Ndii (@DavidNdii) August 22, 2017
Some consider Ndii’s words to be bordering on incitement and have called for his arrest on grounds of treason. In his own defence, Ndii said that Kenya is a cruel marriage and that it was time to consider divorce. He continued to say that, “if change will not come through the ballot, it will through the bullet someday.” He noted that in any nation where avenues of legitimate political dissent are closed, inevitably people end up taking arms since they cannot live in subjugation forever.
Secession is not a novel aspect in Kenyan politics. Early 2012 the MRC (Mombasa Republican Council) called for secession and followed up with attacks on security forces. The group was declared illegal by the government and most of its members were arrested or executed.
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