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Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has thanked ODM party chief Raila Odinga for taking up the role of opposition leader and urged him to execute the mandate of over-sighting the government with diligence.

Speaking at AIPCA church in Kenol Murang’a, the Deputy President said by recently welcoming former Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa into the opposition, Raila had shown commitment to the role.

“Now he is leading things the right way and has accepted he is in the opposition,” said Gachagua. “We want a strong and vibrant opposition to keep us in check, criticise us when we don’t do things the right way and continue asking questions and we shall provide the answers.”

The DP also said the government will have no problem with the opposition as long as it executes its mandate in the right way. He said had the former Prime Minister remained in the opposition instead of co-operating with the Jubilee government after the 2017 election, he would have helped take the country forward.

“He would have stopped the extra-judicial killings, State capture, theft of public funds, conflict of interest among others but he did not question because he was in the government,” said Gachagua. “Being in the opposition is the work given to you by the people, take it and do it well.”

In the past few weeks, Raila has criticised Ruto’s administration on tax review, probe on the extra-judicial killings and failure to bring down the cost of living.

Reward for votes

Raila has also accused Ruto and his deputy of lamenting over the State of the country saying this was just an excuse for them not to deliver their campaign promises.

At the same time Gachagua defended the decision to have a bigger number of Cabinet Secretaries and Principal Secretaries coming from the Mt Kenya, saying it was a reward for the support the people of the region gave the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) in the last election.

He said the same trend will be followed in the appointment of the ambassadors and parastatal heads.

“We overwhelmingly gave our support to ensure UDA won the election and we had made a promise which we have kept,”said the DP.

Gachagua also gave a Sh4 million donation for the completion of the church which he said was from President William Ruto and promised to give an additional Sh1 million.

Church chaos

He apologised to the church leaders for an incident two years ago where chaos erupted ahead of a visit by the then Deputy President William Ruto and two people reportedly died.

“There was an attempt to frame Kiharu MP and Alice Wahome who was then the Kandara MP but one officer who was doing the investigations stood by the truth and exonerated the two,” he said.

“We want our officers to work professionally and independently without intimidation from anybody,”he added.

Speaking in Nairobi later, Gachagua said the government will in the next two weeks establish a taskforce to address issues touching on the welfare of police officers and other reforms in the service.

Speaking while attending a thanksgiving service for disciplined forces and their families at the Holy family Basilica in Nairobi, Gachagua said the Kenya Kwanza administration was focused on having a police service that is empowered.

“In the next two weeks, President William Ruto will be launching a taskforce that will review the terms of service and conditions for our police officers. The taskforce is expected to follow the bottom up approach where they will get views from the lowest cadre to the highest, which is the Inspector-General,” he said.

Police killings

Gachagua, who represented President Ruto who is in Egypt attending a conference on climate, said the taskforce will also listen to Kenyans on changes that they want the police service to make.

“The same way, we want our officers to get decent salaries, we also want them to change where Kenyans will point out there is a problem. We want cases of extra-judicial killings to cease completely,” he said

During the election campaigns, the Kenya Kwanza alliance promised to form The National Task Force on Police Reforms which would look at the welfare of security officers by addressing their remuneration.