RAILA ODINGA DISTANCES HIMSELF FROM UHURU

ODM leader Raila Odinga has told off Deputy President William Ruto for associating him with the failures of the Jubilee administration.

According to Raila, as the second in command in the country’s leadership hierarchy, the deputy president was to blame for misadvising President Uhuru Kenyatta.

Speaking when a group of youths under the banner Western Youth Front at Sosa cottages met in Vihiga County, the former prime minister argued that Ruto has failed the president.

“ODM is not part of the Jubilee administration, we are just there to offer advice. It is him (Ruto) who holds top position in government and he cannot escape blame over the mess in there and leave the president to carry all the blame,” argued Raila.

According to Raila, Ruto was in the forefront of promising laptops for school-going children, creation of at least one million jobs every year, and construction of ultra-modern stadia “and now he has shifted the narrative to mama mboga, wheelbarrow, and boda boda”.

“President Uhuru has tried to deal with corruption especially in the past one year yet some people with ill motives are now using it to buy political favours. They ask churches to allow them to visit and donate cash. I tell you to take the money but don’t thank them for it because it is stolen public funds.

“ODM does not have a single Cabinet secretary slot or a top position in the Jubilee government where policies are formulated, but it is the DP who is expected to advise the Head of State. What kind of an adviser is he,” posed Odinga.

According to the former prime minister, opponents of the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) and handshake were the architects of the infamous Youth For Kanu 92 who have accumulated ill-gotten wealth and fear proposed law reforms could expose them.

Raila’s visit of Western came barely a day after Ruto criss-crossed the region on Saturday on a mission to campaign against BBI.

While in Busia and Matungu sub-counties in Kakamega, Ruto chided the BBI proponents, saying they were to blame for stalled development projects and plans to revive the collapsed sugar sector.

Raila dismissed Ruto’s remarks, arguing that BBI had recommendations that will put the country on the right recovery track, both political and economically.

“Currently, we have barely 70,000 jobs being created in the public sector against one million new graduates joining the labour market every year. We must start thinking outside the box by turning to the private sector and attract both foreign and local investors in a bid to create jobs and other opportunities that will empower the youth, who are over 75 per cent of Kenya’s population.”

According to Raila, a country like China with a population of more than 1.6 billion people has been able to get at least 300,000 million people into the middle-class through an improved economy.

He observed that through BBI, Kenya can easily borrow a leaf from China and have more than 15 million people join the middle class and added, “but for us to realise this, we must have sound economic strategies in place. That is what BBI is seeking to address”.

Contrary to arguments by Ruto that BBI could be costly to the people, Raila said the document proposes the release of capital to the youth for 11 years.

“This is a revolution meant to transform our youth,” said Raila.

By Standard Digital