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Opposition leader Raila Odinga will this morning lead his troops in yet another anti-President William Ruto prayer rally at Jeevanjee gardens in Nairobi.

Raila yesterday said his lieutenants will continue pushing for the electoral reforms, united country and lowering the high cost of living which he said is chocking the citizenry.

Speaking during the burial of Prof Makau Mutua’s brother, Gabriel Wambua Mutua, in Kitui yesterday, Raila said although the Ruto administration had promised to lower the cost of living, it has been increasing taxes, making life unbearable.

Raila lamented that Ruto’s administration is on a charm offensive to balkanise the country, adding that they have locked out other Kenyans from employment opportunities.

“He collects taxes from all Kenyans but when it comes to jobs they are only considering people from two communities. Out of a Cabinet of 22 people, the Kalenjin and Kikuyu community have 14 positions leaving other Kenyans to share the remaining slots,” said Raila.

He said his Azimio coalition will work hard to rescue Kenyans from the yoke of poverty and high cost of living if the Ruto administration is not able to address the challenges. “We want to relieve this load off the backs from the majority of Kenyans. We don’t want war and will do things in a peaceful manner and to bring back the dignity of our people,” he said.

Raila further reiterated that while a section of Kenyans has been questioning why they did not take the issues of the whistle-blower to Supreme Court, he said that their prayers were denied.

“The information available in the whistle-blowers documents has authentic information. The results from 245 constituencies indicate that Ruto garnered 4.6 million and we got 7.1 million votes. When the other results brought which were not sent via KIEMS kit, we got 8.1 million and Ruto got 5.9 million votes. These results are authentic,” charged Raila.

“We went to Supreme Court and asked for opening of the servers. The Supreme Court denied us the opportunity to scrutinise the servers. God does not sleep. A whistle-blower revealed the outcome of the elections. In the servers, we got 8.1 million and Ruto got 5.9 million. These are figures that have not been disputed even by IEBC.”

Economic justice

According to Raila, social and economic justice goes hand in hand with the struggle for electoral justice, adding that illegitimate regimes don’t care about the people but only care about statistics, how much money has been collected in taxes, how much loan the people have taken; the percentage at which the economy is growing. 

“Illegitimate regimes don’t realise that behind these statistics, there are real human beings bearing the yoke they do not deserve and cannot survive. That is where we are today with Kenya Kwanza.  It is about statistics, not people. Kenyans deserve a government that understands that people are hungry and angry, that people need jobs, that people need wage increases to be able to live with dignity, that people need better prospects for the future. Kenyans want and deserve to live well and eat well,” he said.

 According Raila, Ruto’s administration has been hell bent on taxing Kenyans but doing very little to alleviate the untold suffering, adding that for each Sh100 water bill, Sh70 goes to taxes.

“Kenyans now work for taxes. Tax now comprises close to half of the prices of goods our people buy. Tax takes close to a half of the income of every Kenyan. Kenyans need justice on taxation front and we are the only people to take up this battle. We must force an end to taxation policies that place heavier tax burden on the middle-class and the extreme poor while those close to the administration easily avoid taxes and are reimbursed their proceeds of crime.”

He said that during the campaigns, his Azimio coalition promised to provide education for all from nursery up to the university level, adding that most parent can no longer take their children to school because of the high cost of living.

He further promised that they will initiate a Social Protection programme in which poor households will be given a Sh6000 monthly stipend to relieve them from the vagaries of poverty and hunger.

Social protection

“We had promised that we will provide education for all and initiate a social protection programme of Sh6,000 per poor household. We have many problems hunger, high cost of living, high cost of maize flour, fuel and water. Taxes have been increased out of Sh100 for water Sh70 are for taxes,” said Raila.

He said that his Azimio team will crisscross the country and hold rallies sensitising them on the need to lower the high cost of living which has become unbearable for many.

“We will have prayers at Jevanjee gardens tomorrow (today) then on Saturday we will be in Kakamega, Sunday we will be in Kitale and next week will be in Mombasa and the other week in Kiambu. We will finalise with Nairobi,” he said.

Tribal cocoons

He weighed in on Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua’s comments where he likened Kenya as a company, saying that the thinking of the two top leaders is to balkanise the country in to tribal cocoons leaving other Kenyans out of the government.

“It is true they are doing exactly what Rigathi said.  If you look at the Cabinet composition, they nominated only two persons from the Kamba community, two people from the Luhya community, one person from the Luo community, Kisii one and the rest of the slots shared between Kalenjin and Kikuyus,” said Raila.

He went on, “Out of the 51 principal secretaries, 26 are from two communities while the rest of Kenyans can share the remaining slots. They want to dividing the country in tribal lines.”