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Activist Mwangi faults Cord for arrest of protesters


Activist Boniface Mwangi has blamed Cord leaders for the arrest of the #OccupyParliament protesters and urged the coalition to bail them out.

In a letter addressed to the coalition posted on his Facebook page, Mr Mwangi lashed at the coalition’s leaders  for calling out Kenyans  to protest the Security (Amendment) Bill yet its leadership failed to turn up.

He said members of the Bunge la Mwananchi lobby group were arrested after showing up for the protests.

UNLAWFUL ASSEMBLY

“On the 19th of December, the arrested were arraigned and charged with incitement to cause violence and unlawful assembly. Surprisingly Cord was absent and they didn’t send lawyers to represent them.

“Civil society sent a lawyer Mbugua Mureithi who asked the magistrate for a friendly cash bail and the prosecution didn’t object. To rub salt to their literal wounds, Resident Magistrate PM Mugure ordered that the accused be released on a surety or bond of Sh300,000 each, that’s Sh 2.4 million for the eight of them,” added Mwangi in the letter, lamenting that the eight are likely to spent Christmas in prison.

He proceeded to blame the coalition for severally calling for mass action and boycotting the protests leading to the arrest and intimidation of activists.

“Will Cord ever speak up for the masses or will they continue blaming the tyranny of numbers for their silence. Their inability to speak when things go wrong, their failure to even turn up for a protest they organised,” he continued in the letter.

The activist recalled all protests against bad governance that the coalition had boycotted, including the protests that were attended by Reverend Timothy Njoya and the famous protests against MPs increasing salaries.

Mwangi added that the coalition has failed in representing Kenyans who want the government checked. and added that “Cord as opposition has not achieved a single thing for Kenyans since they took that role in March 2013.”

Police arrested the eight protesters outside parliament on Thursday when MPs were debating the bill.