Azimio leader Raila Odinga has scoffed at claims that his coalition was clamoring to join President William Ruto-led Kenya Kwanza government.
While maintaining that the opposition had no such intentions, Raila said his side had agreed to a dialogue with the ruling coalition in order to address the most pressing issues affecting the country, such as the high cost of living.
Speaking at St. Tiberius Ekerubo Catholic Church in Nyamira County during a church service on Sunday, the ODM leader and leaders accompanying took issue with a section of leaders from Kenya Kwanza who have maintained a hard-line position on the impending talks.
“We have not said we want to be in (President William) Ruto’s government. Even those who claim I was in President Uhuru Kenyatta’s government are wrong. I didn’t hold any cabinet position. We neither had a Cabinet Secretary nor a Principal Secretary,” he said
The opposition leader maintained they were ready to engage but vowed to pull out of the talks and prefer the next cause of action if President Ruto’s camp maintain its position. Mr Odinga insists the opposition cannot be dismissed by the ruling party and that issues affecting ordinary citizens including cost of basic commodities must be given priority by the current government.
’’Kenya belongs to all of us that is why we want to dialogue. When Uhuru was president there were food subsidies. We also had kazi kwa vijana. Even the price of fuel was not as high as now. But these prices have been raised” said the former Prime Minister
Both the Azimio and Kenya Kwanza coalitions have already established a five-member team each to lead the talks. The bipartisan team is scheduled to convene this week to determine the modalities that will govern the terms of engagement. The opposition leader recently paused the nationwide protests as he decided to give dialogue with the government another chance.
