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Jubilee Secretary General Jeremiah Kioni has rubbished remarks by Azimio la Umoja coalition party leader Raila Odinga that former President Uhuru Kenyatta was involved in his negotiations with Ruto over the unrest in the country.

Speaking during the Jubilee party’s press conference in Nairobi on Wednesday, August 14, 2024, Kioni said that Uhuru had no hand in the negotiations which resulted in Odinga submitting the names of four ODM officials to be considered for cabinet positions.

“Uhuru Kenyatta’s position is that you cannot join a government that is bent on causing all the havoc that it has caused on Kenyans,” Kioni said.

He added: “This is not a government to join but a government we should be working to remove as provided for in the constitution. When we say Ruto must go, it means everything Ruto-ism, when they started to become mischievous, they said we are saying Ruto so that we are left with Riggy G.”

While at the funeral of the father of former IEBC commissioner Irene Masit in Elgeyo Marakwet on August 13, 2024, Raila told mourners that Uhuru reached out to him to engage Ruto in light of the escalating demos that rocked the country for weeks.

“Sasa sa ile nchi inachomeka, Uhuru ndio alinipigia mimi simu. Uhuru akaniambia tafuta bwana Ruto tuongee na yeye. Kenya Ikichomeka hatutakuwa na nchi ingine (When the country was burning, former President Uhuru Kenyatta called me and asked me to reach out to President Ruto to find a solution to the issues being raised by Gen Zs),” Raila said.

Adding: “William ndio akanitafuta na mimi nikaongea na yeye wazi. Niliongea na Ruto nikamwambia shida iko hapa (William reached out first and we discussed everything openly. We talked and I told him my thoughts and how to deal with the situation,” Raila insisted.

Kioni on Raila’s moves

Kioni has come to rail against Raila’s remarks, stating that the opposition chief has on a number of occasions kept the other members of the Azimio coalition in the dark.

“On two three occasions, I can tell you, even in the issue of the National Dialogue Committee (NADCO), the positions were separate and When Raila was engaging Obasanjo, it was not in the full knowledge of all of us in Azimio; we were learning of it after the event,” Kioni lamented.

At the height of the demonstrations on June 25, 2024, when protesters stormed Parliament and several people were shot dead, Uhuru urged for peace and dialogue among the leaders and the youth.

“As your former president, I have felt the weight of leading Kenyans. I therefore pray for wisdom and civility to be established and for peace and progress to belong to all of us as the children of Kenya,” Uhuru said in a statement in June.

“I come to you with a heavy heart saddened by the loss of lives occasioned by the current situation prevailing in the country. It is the right of Kenyans to protest as determined by the Constitution of Kenya 2010. It is also the duty of leaders to listen to those they lead,” his statement read in part.