Thika reacts to the unfortunate attack on Raila Odinga.

NASA flagbearer addressing Thika residents along Kenyatta Highway on Thursday shortly before he was forced to cut short his speech by some rowdy youth who started pelting stones towards his direction.

The incident at Kenyatta Avenue and Makongeni Thika where some youth disrupted NASA leader Raila Odinga’s tour in the region has generated mixed reactions, ranging from outrage at the youth’s actions to some hailing the act as a form of revenge over what their counterparts in Kisumu did to President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy William Ruto.

It all started with an ugly outburst by some youth, suspected to be Jubilee Party supporters started shouting down the ODM leader. The incident triggered some confrontation between them and Raila’s security men, culminating to stone throwing and police hurling teargas canisters to disperse the rowdy youth who succeeded in cutting short the NASA leaders tour in Kiambu and Murang’a counties.

“Raila should have been given an opportunity to sell his agenda to the people of Thika. If Thika burns just because of such silly acts of hooliganism, will Raila or Uhuru suffer with you? Whoever planned this did something very wrong to Thika people,” said one resident.

He blamed the local leadership for the chaos reminding the organisers of the skirmishes that the constituency was cosmopolitan and constituted virtually all tribes of Kenya and people from supporting different political alignments.

“This ‘gicagi’ mentality that Thika belongs to a certain community should be erased from our minds. We totally condemn this nonsense. Thika needs peace,” he retorted.

A lady who did not want to be identified for security reasons said that Thika had so many NASA supporters who too needed an opportunity to be addressed by their leaders.

“As NASA supporters, we too deserve the right to be respected and be let to assemble as so. We never interfered with Uhuru’s visit when he came here. If one doesn’t want to listen to Raila, why bother coming to his rally?” she asked.

“We know who organised these people and we will definitely express our disappointment on the ballot. Mwambie tarehe nane tutamwonyesha hasira zetu kutumia kura zetu. This is unacceptable!” she added.

(Related story: One man seriously injured as Raila’s convoy is stoned in Thika.)

Another resident argued that it was wrong to respond stupidity with the same. He pointed out that it was such small silly acts that would culminate into ethnic hatred which may plunge this country into chaos just as we witnessed after the 2007 general elections.

He commended the people of Kiambu and Ruiru who accorded the opposition chief a warm reception during his recent visit saying that it was such political tolerance that would heal this country from negative ethnicity.

“Even if our president was heckled in Kisumu the other day, we should have shown our political maturity by letting Raila sell himself peacefully and go. Kwani, does that change your vote?” he asked.

“We need to remember that we face the same challenges as Kenyan regardless of who we personally support. Let us therefore settle our differences through the ballot. Furthermore, we will be buying unga at the same price whether Uhuru or Raila wins,” said one young lady.

However, there were those few residents who bore that school of thought that the people of Thika needed to return fire with fire.

“People got angry yesterday with what they witnessed in Kisumu against UhuRuto. We have to retaliate and we have no apologies!” said one angry youth.

Another youth reckoned that they did whatever they did to show Raila and his people that they held no monopoly of violence.

“Thika is a Jubilee zone and if they think that they hold the monopoly of violence, we are going to show them dust,” he said.