‘I know my way to Bondo’ – Raila tells Ruto

Azimio la Umoja – One Kenya supremo Raila Odinga has chewed out President William Ruto over his recent utterances that his only responsibility is to ferry him back to Bondo.

Speaking during an opening ceremony for Odhoo Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) church in Nyando on Saturday, August 12, 2023, Raila claimed that the President was obsessed with retiring him from active politics and stressed that he did not need him to get home.

“You’re obsessed with saying your next responsibility is to take Raila to Bondo. Raila knows how to get to Bondo. I don’t need Ruto to take me to Bondo,” Raila stated amid cheers from the congregation.

The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) leader also chided the President for ‘criminalizing’ the opposition’s protests insisting that the right to picket has been enshrined in Kenya’s constitution.

“The right to demonstrate is enshrined in the constitution, if there is something that you don’t like, you have a right to demonstrate. Demonstrations have been going on all over the world yet in Kenya somebody purports to criminalise demonstrations,” he stated.

Further, Raila told off the President for insisting that protests were leading to the destruction of property. The former prime minister claimed that Ruto’s remarks and ‘criminalization’ of protests were meant to create excuses for police to kill Kenyans in cold blood.

“You have been claiming that demonstrators are destroying properties. What properties are we destroying in Kibera, Sondu, and Mathare? These are basically excuses to kill Kenyans in cold blood and we must say no,” he added.

Ruto’s remarks

Raila’s utterances come a week after Ruto announced that he will be sending Raila to Bondo without even knowing it.

Ruto who has for the umpteenth time stressed that he was determined to send Raila back home also assured Kenyans not to fret about his administration sharing power with the opposition.

“The only job I have left is to send Raila Odinga back to Bondo. He will go back there without even knowing it,” the President said.

Adding: “They did not manage us before, how will they do it then now? I told you there is no deep state that I don’t know. I told you they could not steal my votes. Now you think now they can confuse us so that they get into government? Whose government?”