Raila Odinga tells Trump's administration to back-off as swearing in nears

Kenya’s opposition leader is rejecting U.S. advice to cancel a planned mock inauguration of him as president, saying he doesn’t recognize the legitimacy of President Uhuru Kenyatta.Raila Odinga alleged Thursday that dozens of Kenyans have been killed by the security forces and “nobody is talking about it. Yet they have the audacity to come and advise us to forget and move on.”The US called the December 12 ceremony "extra-constitutional" and urged the opposition to work within Kenya's laws to pursue electoral and other reforms.The statement comes as the top US official for African affairs, Donald Yamamoto, visits the East African economic hub after it faced months of political turmoil, including a repeat presidential election. He met with government and opposition leaders.The opposition chief has however maintained a hard line, telling the western envoys ‘the will of the people cannot be stopped.Further taking a swipe at them for not talking about the alleged police killings in the violent protests that followed the August 8 and October 26 elections."We thought we had friends but we were wrong and now we know they are enemies. Up to today, no single ambassador has condemned the killing of people by police," said Raila."The western countries should, therefore, keep off the affairs of the country as Kenyan problems will only be solved by Kenyans themselves,” the opposition chief added. Raila also claimed 215 people have died during the post-poll chaos whilst the government remained tight lipped about it, insisting their families deserved an apology."He urged his supporters to continue advocating for electoral justice.   "We don't recognise the swearing-in that took place because it was based on an election that we also don't recognize,” he said.