National Super Alliance (NASA) leader Raila Odinga has spoken on an earlier petition by two Kenyans calling for division of the country into two halves.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Odinga stated that he did not support the petition but noted that the current political situation in the country has sparked a critical debate that would force such a division.
The former Prime Minister warned that the post-election crisis in the country and the ethnic discrimination had sparked the debate on secession.
“I do not support the secession, but you have seen disintegration happened in many countries in eastern Europe. This debate in Kenya is gaining currency as a result of poor governance as Kenyans now feel they have been completely disenfranchised,” he noted.
“We’re clearly in a political environment that could start hurtling downhill, and it could go in any direction. The country is very divided, and when people become desperate, they resort to desperate measures,” he stated.
[caption caption="Raila Odinga"]
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He also blamed the calls for secession on the ethnic discrimination in the country stating that for too long, power has been dominated by two communities.
Odinga distanced himself from the petition by two voters Mr Mathew Okwanda Mwilitsa and Mr Alex Misigo Matisa who seek the secession of Western Kenya, which was formerly Eastern Province of Uganda under the colonial rule.
In their petition, the two Kenyans urged the court to allow the people occupying the Western region to hold a referendum on national and territorial rights.
They have sued the governments of Uganda, Kenya, and Britain for destabilizing the once united Abaluhyia kingdom.
According to the petitioners, the colonial governments declined to heed to the Abaluhyia community's demands to have their kingdom during the Lancaster House conference in the United Kingdom, which led to Kenya's independence in 1963.
[caption caption="President Uhuru and Raila Odinga"]
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Mr Okwanda and Mr Matisa indicate in their petition that the government has discriminated the Luhyia community in job allocation and general development funding.
"The community has been marginalized economically, socially, culturally and politically to the extent of being given a derogatory tag as being professional cooks and watchmen" part of the petition read.
