Raila’s Campaign Of Defiance Was Designed To Ruin Our Economy, Who Is Sponsoring Him?
The Mt Kenya Times 
Azimio La Umoja One Kenya Party leader Raila Odinga
By: Joseph Mutua Ndonga
Worth Noting:
- I want to say this. If you do a comparative analysis of the presidencies of Mwai Kibaki, Uhuru Kenyatta and now William Ruto, one thing is clear.
- The latter is hard nut to crack. So, if the former two managed to manauver and got re-elected for second term, I would not expect the strategy of handshake duo to bear any fruits.
- Up to date, the former president has remained non-committal on whether he was bankrolling Raila’s campaign of defiance.
- The last time I heard him speaking was after attending the burial of former Education CS George Magoha in Siaya.
- While accompanied by Raila Odinga, he made a stopover in Kisumu. He told the residents.
The other day I read a lead story published by one of the Weekly newspapers in Kenya.
Headlined ‘Raila wants Ruto one term President’; the story enumerated a raft of strategies he had put in place to ensure this come to pass.
One, the story alleged that former President Uhuru Kenyatta was fully backing his campaigns.
This is not the first time the name of the former President would be mentioned.
Earlier when Raila was holding the demonstrations, a group of powerful politicians aligned to the ruling Kenya Kwanza government from Mount Kenya region led by the Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua and National Assembly majority leader Kimani Ichungwah kept alleging.
The former President was the key financier of Raila’s Mandamano.
They would allege the ultimate goal of the duo was two-pronged.
One, mobilize and incite Kenyans to rise up against President Ruto. This is with a view of ousting him from power through popular uprising.
If they fail on this, they will embark on Plan B that would make Dr William Ruto a time term president.
If this were to happen, Ruto would go down into annals of history as the first one term president.
I want to say this. If you do a comparative analysis of the presidencies of Mwai Kibaki, Uhuru Kenyatta and now William Ruto, one thing is clear.
The latter is hard nut to crack. So, if the former two managed to maneuver and got re-elected for second term, I would not expect the strategy of handshake duo to bear any fruits.
Up to date, the former president has remained non-committal on whether he was bankrolling Raila’s campaign of defiance.
The last time I heard him speaking was after attending the burial of former Education CS George Magoha in Siaya.
While accompanied by Raila Odinga, he made a stopover in Kisumu. He told the residents.
I’m still a staunch member of Azimio La Umoja One Kenya Party. Baba is my leader. Those who think that Uhuru Kenyatta retired from politics are wrong. I only retired as a president and I’m not tired. Baba meant well for this country. So, agenda of Azimio is very much alive.
Things took a new turn later when goons raided properties owned by the two leaders.
This happened on a day when Raila was leading a demonstration in the city of Nairobi.
The raid on Northland farm associated with Kenyatta family left a trail of destructions.
The goons stole tens of hundreds of Dorper goats; slaughtered some of the animals and sold the meat to motorists and passers-by at a throw way prices.
The goons also burnt trees and demarcated part of the land and started to put up structures.
This incident elicited mixed reactions. In Mount Kenya, the opinion was divided.
Those who supported argued. Our leaders have been saying the former President was supporting Raila’s Mandamano (demonstrations).
The small scale business people bore the brunt as the protestors targeted our businesses.
They would destroy them and engage in looting spree.
At the end of day, we are left counting losses running into billions of shillings.
The deputy President had earlier stated. The business community in Nairobi city was losing 2 billion a day when the demonstration was taking place.
So, it seems this is the message the goons were sending to Uhuru.
Being a former President and a scion of the richest family of former President Jomo Kenyatta, you should not take this to mean your properties are safe.
We wanted you to feel the pain we go through.
Besides destructions witnessed, the business people were forced to stay at home because of fear of being attacked.
At this juncture, allow me to say this. So far, there is no tangible evidence that former President was sponsoring Raila’s demonstrations.
However, his remarks and body language suggested he was supporting his campaign.
Reports indicated the well- endowed promoters raised money for mobilization and other logistic issues. This explains why many Kenyans would want to hear former President’s response.
It is worth to recall Uhuru openly campaigned for Raila in the countdown to 2022 general election. He had also roped in tycoons drawn from Mount Kenya behind his candidature.
A few days ago, Raila and his brigade held a rally at Kamukunji ground. In his speech, Raila left no doubt that he was determined to take his campaign of defiance to a new level.
“We told Mr Ruto that the Finance Bill 2023 was bad, punitive and asked him to withdraw it. He declined to heed our call and went ahead to assent to it. We are not relenting. We are going to push him hard so that he can know the power belongs to the people”.
Moving forward, we have launched a campaign of civil disobedience and tax boycotts. Here, Raila had set the stage for economic sabotage.
This showed that he did not believe in the cause of Wanjiku, the ordinary Kenyan.
He was hellbent on driving this country to dog while in pursuit of his selfish and personal interests.
It is worth note that Raila read a similar script in the aftermath of 2007 and 2017 general elections, respectively.
This time, his campaign of intimidation, blackmail and arm-twist bore the fruit.
President Mwai Kibaki and his successor Uhuru Kenyatta were left with only one option: to share the government with him.
For Kibaki, he agreed to let him take up half of the government.
The other day, I read a story in the newspapers which made shocking and damning revelations.
The story which quoted audit reports alleged that loans totalling to Sh4 trillion borrowed during the reign of President Kenyatta could not be accounted for.
This is because this was done without following the financial laws.
The lion share was from the domestic borrowing.
This question is. Was this monies used for the public good? The story indicated a chunk of it was used to construct the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR). Equally, the story suggested a huge part of it could have been stolen.
In light of this, it is only a commission of inquiry that give us a true picture of how these funds were spent.
I also had an opportunity to read and listen to comments attributed to Busia Senator Okiya Omtata. He claimed that Kenya has overpaid the loan monies. How? These were weighty allegations. He needed to substantiate them by producing supporting documents. He failed to do this.
To me, his claims bordered more on politics but not facts.
Remember he made these allegations after the court declined to rule in favor of his application seeking to stop the passage of Finance Bill, 2023.
He ought to have shed light on this. Which government had overpaid? Uhuru’s or Ruto’s government.
We know the foreign loans had been borrowed from financial institutions in different countries. Which were they overpaid?
If it is loans borrowed domestically, where are documents to show the institutions that were overpaid?
It is should be noted that President Uhuru’s Jubilee government break record buy borrowing the largest chunk of the foreign loans since independence.
The total amount stood at Sh9 trillion. This is the debt that President William Ruto inherited.
Most of these loans have since matured. The Kenya Kwanza government is spending 70 percent of revenues to service the loans.
Joseph Mutua Ndonga is a writer and political analyst based in Nairobi
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