Raila Takes Oath as the People's President as Kalonzo Skips Ceremony

National Super Alliance (Nasa) leader Raila Odinga on Tuesday afternoon took oath as the ‘people’s president’.

Odinga was "sworn in" at Uhuru Park Grounds in Nairobi at about 2.45 pm. The oath of office was administered by Ruaraka MP TJ Kajwang and former Nairobi gubernatorial candidate Miguna Miguna.

The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) leader took oath in front of thousands of his supporters, who thronged the historic Uhuru Park grounds as early as 6 am.

However, Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka did not attend the ceremony to take oath as deputy people's president.

Speaking after the inauguration, Raila noted that Kalonzo skipped the event due to reasons he will explain later. He said he will be sworn-in in later.

Also missing were fellow co-principals Moses Wetang'ula and Musalia Mudavadi.

In the morning, hundreds of police officers who manned Uhuru Park grounds were abruptly withdrawn from the facility, allowing opposition supporters to access the venue. This was followed by a shutdown of main media stations including Citizen, NTV and KTN News, who had camped at the facility to air the swearing in ceremony live.

Addressing journalists at his Karen home in Nairobi on earlier, Kalonzo lamented the withdrawal of his security detail and those of other Nasa co-principals. “Every security detail was taken away. But this is a very important struggle and we are still consulting. The media is under attack and now the remaining security detail assigned to us has been taken away,” said Musyoka. He further termed the abrupt withdraw of police officers deployed at Uhuru Park Grounds, where the coalition's ‘swearing in’ event is scheduled to take place as “tactical”.

Questioned whether the oathing ceremony could be called off, Musyoka remained non-committal noting: “I don’t want to say about that right now. This tactical withdrawal by the police, we don’t know.”