2015-03-30

For long, Raila Odinga has styled himself as a champion of our new constitutional dispensation and the midwife of the constitution. In fact, prior to the referendum, Raila Odinga went to town with the virtues of the constitution. It is, therefore, quite dismaying to observe his discomfort over its implementation and observance. It is becoming quite obvious that Raila Odinga is acquainting himself with the Supreme Law for the first time years after its promulgation.

First of all, the Constitution is Agenda 4 of the National Accord in concrete, living, comprehensive form. Agenda 4 cannot be implemented outside the constitution.

Finally, the war on graft is off on a strong, systematic and large-scale footing. Understandably, the loudest protests against the President’s recent move are from those who have skeletons in their closets. As a co-principal of the immediate former administration, Raila Odinga’s office was frequently buffeted by enormous scandals where Kenya lost lots of money. The Kazi Kwa Vijana and Maize scandals are just two of these colossal frauds on the people of Kenya. This is the source of Mr Odinga’s discomfort. Discrediting the anti-corruption process is, therefore, at the heart of his short-, medium- and long-term personal interest.

So apprehensive is he that he has deliberately misconstrued the plain meaning of Article 254(2) of the constitution. He is splitting legal hair so finely that he has missed the wood for the trees. For the record, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission has not taken issue nor disowned any part of the report. The report was duly submitted to the President and to Parliament in accordance with the Supreme Law. Mr Odinga is not opposing the war on corruption on any meaningful point of principle, or as a matter of public interest. He is not standing with the people.

The President’s apology, on behalf of the present and past governments in connection with various known injustices, was appropriate and welcomed by Kenyans. There is a clear process to proceed with the justice and accountability agenda in regard to these injustices through restitution, restorative justice and reconciliation. The apology was for many gross and regrettable offences against the Kenyan public, some of which Mr Odinga is intimately associated with. The 1982 attempted coup and 2007 post-election violence are some of the matters to which closure will never happen without Mr Odinga standing before the nation and explaining himself.

In the Grand Coalition Government, Mr. Odinga was big on stepping aside as a remedy for perceived integrity lapses in government. All of a sudden, he sees the process as cruel and a joke.

Mr. Odinga’s self-contradiction, obviously defective and deceptive take on the law, evasion of accountability for his role in various matters of grave national concern and constant nay-saying are nothing but the tantrums of a leader whose ideology, strategy and understanding of the aspirations of Kenyans has been overtaken by time. He is out of step with the temper of the moment. He no longer speaks the same language with the people of Kenya. He has lost it.

ERIC NG’ENO

Senior Director of Messaging at the Presidency.

WHAT RAILA ODINGA SAID IN HIS REACTION TO THE PRESIDENT’S DIRECTIVE

Cord leader Raila Odinga has dismissed President Uhuru Kenyatta’s directive to national and county government officials who have been implicated in corruption scandals to step aside.

Mr Odinga further faulted the President for handing over to the Senate and National Assembly Speakers the list of individuals said to be under investigations for corruption.

Cord leader Raila Odinga has dismissed President Uhuru Kenyatta’s directive to national and county government officials who have been implicated in corruption scandals to step aside.

Mr Odinga further faulted the President for handing over to the Senate and National Assembly Speakers the list of individuals said to be under investigations for corruption.

In a statement read on his behalf by Busia Woman Representative Florence Mutua on Friday in the county, Mr Odinga described the President’s State of the Nation address delivered in Parliament on Thursday as a “hypocritical lamentation that adds to nothing and accounts for nothing”, adding that Mr Kenyatta was not committed to fighting corruption.

“What the President did was whitewashing corruption and a move to compromise war on corruption while purporting to fight the vice,” said the Cord leader.

He accused the Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission of failing to deliver on its mandate.

“We have serious objections to a supposedly independent anti-corruption agency that secretly submits a list of alleged corruption suspects to the President,” he said.

Mr Odinga questioned why President Kenyatta remained mum on graft at the electoral commission and ministries of Devolution, and Health.

-nation.co.ke

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