NAIROBI, Kenya Sep 8 – ODM party leader Raila Odinga has distanced himself from claims that he is the man behind the derailed development delivery in Jubilee government.
Speaking while receiving defectors to ODM party, Odinga that in Jubilee’s first term, President Uhuru Kenyatta was a cornered man due to ‘undercutting from his Deputy William Ruto.”
The former Prime Minister alluded that the handshake was the remedy to the challenges the president faced and that is why he “has been able to deliver in his second term.”
He was responding to constant accusations from Ruto that Jubilee has not been able to deliver during the second term due to the government’s dalliance with the Opposition.
“Uhuru can now breathe. I found him grabbed by the throat. At least now he can breathe and focus on development, that is why you can see the ongoing development projects including road constructions,” he said, “In the first Jubilee regime all this was not possible. They were busy hunting looking onto the next project they will collect funds, that was what the handshake came to cure.”
Odinga and DP Ruto have been tearing each other, politically, as they seek to position themselves for the presidency in the 2022 General Election.
Ruto is campaigning on a social empowerment platform, vowing to empower the youth and anyone in the pyramid base through his Bottom-up economic model which Odinga has dismissed as not practical.
He has however, lately embraced social democracy which aims at bridging the gap between the rich and the poor.
With the Building bridges initiative (BBI) appeal case filed at the Supreme Court, the former prime minister has remained confident that the quest for constitutional change will bounce back despite the legal hurdles.
“Our main quest was never constitutional reforms, when we consulted with Kenyans is when it was agreed that we must change the constitution. The court ruled otherwise but no worries reggae will bounce back,” noted Odinga.
Odinga said the BBI will help deliver many people from poverty.
“In our country, a lot of people are facing problems. In Nairobi alone, most people living in slums cannot access basic things as water and sanitation, in the same county we have people who own acres of land where their main problem at the end of the day is whether their dog has eaten. We want to cure this disparity,” said Raila.
He said that the slum upgrading program is one of the development agendas implemented through the social democracy development model.
“We want to build modern houses and empower people to get means of buying those houses. We want to reduce poverty by also building markets and workshops so that the poor can get an income. It has worked in Malaysia and Singapore. It will work in Kenya,” he noted.
In his recent campaign trail, Odinga has shifted focus to the ‘hustlers’, as a ploy to get a chunk of votes from the group taunted as Ruto’s solid base come the 2022 political battle.
