Kenya: Opposition movement declared criminal group

By Magdalene Mukami

NAIROBI, Kenya (AA) - Nairobi on Tuesday labeled Kenya’s opposition National Resistance Movement (NRM) an organized criminal group, hours after its leader Raila Odinga symbolically “swore himself in” as president in a mock inauguration.

Last October, Odinga formed the NRM from his National Super Alliance (NASA) political movement to pressure President Uhuru Kenyatta’s government to make Kenyatta step aside call for a new free, fair and credible election.

In a statement, Kenya’s Interior Ministry said that under the 2010 Prevention of Organized Crimes Act, “the Ministry of the Interior and Co-ordination of National Government declares the National Resistance Movement to be an organized criminal group."

The parliamentary wing of the opposition National Resistance Movement has previously called on its supporters to boycott services and products from companies it claims is supporting Kenyatta’s ruling Jubilee party.

The declaration puts Odinga’s NRM in the same legal category as the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Shabaab militant group, which has killed thousands of innocent people in the horn of Africa region and has been called a criminal group by the government.