Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga is to be “inaugurated” on Tuesday despite warnings from the attorney general that this protest act could amount to treason.

The announcement by the National Super Alliance (NASA) sets the stage for another round of election-related clashes between police and opposition supporters and raises fears of more civilian deaths, AP reported.

Following months of turmoil and violence that surrounded last year’s annulled elections, a rerun and a legal challenge to the inauguration of incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta in November, Odinga and NASA swore that they would never recognise Kenyatta as president nor his government as legitimate.

Fears of bloody clashes erupting in the capital Nairobi and around the country have spiked, with the US warning the opposition leader against such a move as the East African economic hub attempts to move forward.

The police have vowed to block opposition supporters from reaching the event.

“Whoever is thinking to come to Uhuru Park tell him or her not to attempt. We will not allow that,” said Nairobi police chief Japheth Koome. The county government also announced the park was closed for renovations.

However, NASA CEO Norman Magaya remained defiant despite the heavy deployment of police to the park.

“If in this country we ever relied on the benevolence of the police, we would not have achieved anything democratically,” Magaya said.

“We have achieved everything we have achieved through defiance, through resistance and sustenance of a struggle to ensure we liberate ourselves from the yolk of the police state and dictatorship,” he added.

Kenyan police have long been accused of using excessive force to crush political dissent and protests, according to human rights groups who have further stated that Kenyatta is moving towards a dictatorship.

Kenya’s editor’s guild said in a statement on Monday that Kenyatta, in a private meeting with journalists and editors Friday, “expressly threatened to shut down and revoke the licenses of any media house” that would broadcast live Odinga’s protest event.