‘We never had say in Jubilee gov’t’ – Raila
By Mary Ouko, February 9, 2023
Azimio la Umoja-One Kenya coalition leader Raila Odinga has now distanced himself from the failures of the former administration which was led by former President Uhuru Kenyatta.
While speaking to the press, Raila strongly refuted that his team was responsible for the problems within the Jubilee government.
In a sly dig aimed at President William Ruto and his allies who were serving in the previous regime, the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) leader noted that the aforementioned leaders were part and parcel of the failures witnessed in the previous regime.
Raila reiterated that the basis of the handshake was to formulate the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) meant to cater to the needs of Kenyans and not to oversight key roles within the former administration.
“There has been propaganda being spread by those at Kenya Kwisha that we were responsible for the problems within the Jubilee government. We never had a say in the Jubilee government, as opposition we never had anybody appoint anybody as a head of a parastatal in the Jubilee government, not even a permanent secretary in the Jubilee government.
“We have never had, they are the ones who were in government, the ones that were living there earning salaries, having protection, security and so on, yet they come out and say that the government has failed; If it failed they were part and parcel of the failure, not us,” Raila said.
Raila’s remarks come amidst claims from the current administration that he(Raila) abandoned his oversight role during the Jubilee regime and allowed public coffers to be looted.
Led by Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, the leaders asked Raila to go slow on oversighting the ruling regime as they try to fix the ‘mess’ he created in the Jubilee reign.
At the time, Gachagua also blamed Raila for allegedly misleading the former regime to spend Ksh50 billion on the BBI.
“You abandoned your duty to oversight government, serikali ikaporwa. Sasa unalalamika bei iko juu na wewe ndio uliwacha kazi yako ukawachilia wakora wakaiba pesa yote ya Kenya,” Gachagua said.