Cord
leader Raila Odinga says he is not threatened by President Uhuru Kenyatta’s
forays into his strongholds, mostly in Western, Nyanza and Coast regions.
The
President, who last week postponed a planned trip to Kisumu, has made frequent
visits to areas perceived to be Mr Odinga’s strongholds in
what Jubilee strategists have packaged as part of his efforts to
demonstrate that he is committed to develop all parts of the country regardless
of their political leaning.
However,
Mr Odinga is dismissive of the idea that the President must tour a particular
region for it to experience development, arguing that all Kenyans deserve a
share of national resources.
He
says that tying development to presidential visits was a “primitive political
culture” that should have died with the end of the Kanu era.
According
to Mr Odinga, Cord supporters cannot be swayed by “presidential
motorcades”. He said that his political stronghold was “national”.
“Our
support is not so cheap for people to change their stand because of a presidential
motorcade,” he said. There have been suggestions that President Kenyatta’s
planned visit to Kisumu was postponed to accommodate Mr Odinga who was out of
the country but the former Prime Minister on Saturday indicated that State
House had not contacted him over the trip, adding that such contact was
unnecessary.
“The President
is the leader of the whole country and he is free to visit any part of the
nation. He is welcome to Kisumu and does not require my blessings to do so,” he
said.
“Jubilee
has an agenda though it has chosen to discriminate against other parts of the
country. The President is free to sell himself politically and his agenda
anywhere in the country and address problems facing the people.”
According
to the ODM leader, the President had visited a number of his strongholds
without much ado.
“He
has been to Mombasa, Kakamega, Teso, Kilifi, Migori, Kisii, Nairobi and many
other places which voted for me in the last election without my blessings,” he
said.
“I
am least perturbed about the visits. People from those regions pay taxes. They
don’t need to support Jubilee or work with government for their areas to be
developed.”
According
to Mr Odinga, the constitution demands that national resources and state jobs
be distributed equitably and development should not be marketed as “a favour”
to the people by the ruling coalition.
The
Cord principal also laughed off the recent decision by President Kenyatta to
“hand over” power to his Deputy William Ruto ahead of his appearance at the
International Criminal Court, saying it was “ridiculous” and the summoning of
Parliament to make the announcement was a “waste of public resources”.
“I
was amused by the hullabaloo over the purported handover. Article 147 of the
constitution makes it automatic for the Deputy President to act as Head of
State in the absence of the President,” argued the Opposition leader who fought
for the presidency against the two in the March 2013 General Election.
“Handing
over a motorcade is not handing over power. If Uhuru was serious, he should
have also given Mr Ruto the instruments of power such as the presidential
sword.”
Mr
Odinga is currently at the centre of a push for a constitutional referendum to
increase allocation of resources to county governments, address issues of
equity in sharing of public jobs, land and electoral reforms under the Okoa
Kenya campaign also spearheaded by former Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka.
President
Kenyatta is leading the Jubilee brigade against the referendum campaign, saying
it is diversionary, unnecessary, a waste of public resources and a strategy by
the Cord leaders to rejuvenate their political careers. The Council of
Governors is also rallying another referendum for more money to the counties
through the Pesa Mashinani drive.
In
the conversation yesterday, Mr Odinga revealed that the Okoa Kenya team had
settled on three issues that will be the pillars of the debate: Devolution,
land and electoral reforms.
REVIEW
COLLECTED SIGNATURES
The
ODM leader said the Okoa Kenya campaign had reduced its tempo to allow its
committee of experts to verify the collected signatures, which he claimed were
more than five million.
According
to the former PM, Okoa Kenya is proposing increase of budgetary allocation to
counties, devolution of aspects of security to ensure that Administration
Police report to governors as well as devolution of education infrastructure.
On
education, they want the national government to handle teachers and the
curriculum while the sub-nationals will oversee development of classrooms and
other infrastructure.
“We
have dropped some of the issues after testing public opinion. Our team is
verifying the signatures and we hope to move to the next step next month.”
To
address issues of elections, Mr Odinga, who led a team to monitor the
just-concluded Mozambique elections, said that political parties should be
allowed to nominate individuals to the electoral commission to ensure
transparency and fairness.
According
to Mr Odinga, the National Land Commission should be allowed to handle all
public and community land issues in consultation with county governments while
the national government deals with private land.
He
accused the Jubilee Government of abetting corruption in the management of land
and public resources.
At
the same time, Mr Odinga challenged Mr Ruto to come clear on the source of
money he has been dishing out in harambees.
“We
suspect that the source is dubious. Where does he get Sh40 million every month
yet his salary is Sh2 million? We know his business interests cannot generate
the kind of money he has been dishing out every weekend.”
Stressing
that he was not opposed to harambees, Mr Odinga said he was concerned that
they may be used as an avenue for misuse of public funds and demanded greater
transparency.
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