Protestors in Kisumu on Tuesday expressed their disbelief in
the police for failing to lob teargas to disperse them during the
demonstrations called by Nasa presidential candidate Raila Odinga.
The disappointed lot described a good protest as that which
engages police in running battles and lobbing of teargas canisters to disappear
them before they are dispersed.
"The police must come and chase us for us to leave. So,
we are saying protesting without tear gas doesn't add anything. The protests
have not been successful,” a protestor shouted at police.
They added: "They must disperse us (with tear gas) for
us to leave."
On Tuesday police officers refrained from using teargas
during Kisumu protests. Raila Odinga on Tuesday called his supporters to stage
demos against 12 IEBC officials to leave office before the repeat elections
could be done.
This, however, did not go down well with some of the
protesters who expected things to get ugly between them and the security
officers.
The group argued that the teargas canisters are bought with
taxpayers hence must be hurled at them anytime there is a demo.
"These protests were not successful. As far as we are
concerned, demos must be concluded with teargas,” they shouted.
"They must throw them at us for us to leave. Even if
our governor says we should leave, we are not leaving," the protester
added.
Raila Odinga led Nasa called the protests to push for the
removal of IEBC CEO Ezra Chiloba accusing him of bungling the August 8
election.
The election was nullified by the Supreme Court which cited
illegalities and irregularities during the transmission of results.
NASA maintains 11 officials of the electoral agency,
including Chiloba, must go before the body holds fresh elections slated for
October 26.
The largely peaceful protests were held simultaneously in
Nairobi and Kisumu.
In Nairobi, the demos were relatively peaceful until the
protesters clashed with Jubilee backers at Anniversary Towers.
NASA principals Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka did not
take part in the demos as was anticipated.
Their security detail was withdrawn earlier in the day.
Questioned why he didn't show up during a press conference,
Raila said generals do not always go to war.
Meanwhile, the DPP has instituted investigations against few
officials in the IEBC to establish whether they were to blame for the bungled
elections before prosecuting.
IEBC is set for the first meeting with Nasa and Jubilee
presidential candidates ion Wednesday for the first time after the ruling by
the Supreme Court that annulled the presidential elections.
