Azimio One Kenya coalition has criticized the Kenya Kwanza alliance manifesto unveiled on Thursday, June 30, 2022, saying it fails to address key issues affecting the country.

In a statement on Friday, Azimio presidential flag bearer Raila Odinga termed the manifesto launched by his UDA rival William Ruto on Thursday night as underwhelming.

Raila, through his spokesperson Makau Mutua, accused Ruto of deliberately giving the fight against corruption a wide berth in his manifesto.

“The only word to describe what the whole nation saw and heard — is underwhelming,” Mutua said.

“The evening was punctuated by empty promises, slogans, and headshakes. The most important issue facing this nation was conspicuously missing from the UDA manifesto. The word corruption was not mentioned and did not cross Mr. Ruto’s lips even once.”

The Azimio camp alluded that Ruto’s failure to talk about how he would deal with graft points to a lack of commitment to prosecute several politicians in his camp linked to graft if elected in August.

“Like the plague, Mr. Ruto completely avoided any mention of the word. We know why. Kenya Kwanza is the home of the largest collection of questionable political characters this country has ever seen. Under its large tent reside convicts and suspects of economic crimes and corruption against the people of Kenya,” Makua added.

“Mr. Ruto himself is a scandal-ridden individual. He has been implicated in many economic crimes and acts of corruption. It is no wonder that Mr. Ruto and Kenya Kwanza have no agenda or plan to address corruption, the number one impediment to the development of our country.”

He claimed that, unlike Kenya Kwanza, the Azimio team is determined to slay the corruption dragon.

“There will be zero tolerance for corruption under Azimio and those culpable will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law without any exceptions. There will be no room at all for any corrupt individual in the Azimio government.,” Makau stated.

Raila insisted ending corruption is the only way through which Kenya will realize its full potential.

“This vice is the biggest threat to Kenya and we are determined to stamp it out, unlike our opponents who do not even dare to utter the word,” he added.

“How can they claim to fight for ‘hustlers’ when they are scared to even mention and name our country’s most important enemy?” he posed.

Ruto’s agenda

Ruto unveiled the Kenya Kwanza manifesto at a colourful ceremony held at Kasarani Stadium, Nairobi.

Ruto’s manifesto dubbed ‘The Plan’ mirrors the bottom-up economic model. It captures MSMEs and Financing, Agriculture and Food Security, Housing and settlement, Healthcare Access, Digital superhighway and creative economy.

He pledged to scrutinise all contracts entered into by the government over the last 10 years with a view to establishing their viability.

The presidential hopeful also committed to reviewing the country’s treaty obligations that are against the Constitution, national interest and foreign policy.