(sent by Jagwassi)

POLITICS

Raila: I won’t swallow PM bait again

Story by DAVID MUGONYI and FRED OLUOCH
Publication Date: 7/01/2007

ODM Kenya presidential hopeful Raila Odinga will not accept the prime minister’s position in any power-sharing arrangement because it is not in the Constitution.

Mr OdingaAsked in an interview with the Sunday Nation yesterday why so many of his ODM colleagues seemed to think the PM’s position was tailor-made for him, he replied: “What is the guarantee that it will be done properly now?” He was alluding to President Kibaki’s failure to honour a Memorandum of Understanding that would have made him premier after the 2002 elections.

Mr Odinga said it was up to Kenyans, and not just a few people, to decide which position he was suited.

“That is selfish...it is not they to judge what I’m suitable for; it is for Kenyans to judge.’’ He said he would not have minded being premier, ‘‘had things been done properly.”

Some ODM-K leaders have proposed a power-sharing formula in which Mr Odinga would become premier if the party wins the elections. Rift Valley MPs want Mr Odinga to take the position of PM while either Mwingi North MP Kalonzo Musyoka or former Vice President Musalia Mudavadi runs for President. Eldoret North MP William Ruto, who is steering the consensus initiative, has agreed to serve in a lesser position.

Mr Odinga said his association with ODM-K chairman Henry Kosgey and former head of the public service Sally Kosgei should not be misconstrued to mean he was undermining Mr Ruto.

He has rejected suggestions that he relinquish his presidential bid if a nominee is chosen by consensus, but he said he would back whoever defeats him in a vote. He said ODM-K can only unseat President Kibaki if it is united as it was in its campaign against the proposed Constitution.

Mr Odinga also ruled out entering into a deal with President Kibaki, who he said represents a group that wants to retain the status quo while he belongs to the one that wants to transform the country.

“President Kibaki represents the group I am talking about,’’ he said. ‘‘This unequal system has always existed, but President Kibaki has now fully embraced it.’’

‘‘You can see the same faces who were with Kenyatta; they jumped onto the Moi bandwagon, and now they are with President Kibaki.”

According to Mr Odinga, Kenyans should give him the chance at the presidency because he has fought throughout his life to bring about democratic changes.

“Since independence, there have been two forces who have been pulling in different directions: the forces for the retention of the status quo vis-a-vis the forces that want to transform Kenya into a modern democratic society,’’ he said.

‘‘While I belong to the latter, the three past regimes of Jomo Kenyatta, Daniel arap Moi and Mwai Kibaki preferred to retain the status quo.’’ Mr Odinga sees himself as different from other politicians because he has not been part of the political elite that has plundered resources and stifled development.

“I have been on the other side all the time trying to fight for change, and I believe that those who abetted or never saw what was wrong with what was going on all those years cannot be relied upon to bring about change because they don’t understand change.”

However, he defended the ODM-K team, some members of which were part and parcel of the Moi Government involved in plunder of the country’s resources.

Mass movement

Because of its mass movement nature, he said, ODM-K was bound to have such people. He argued that what was important was the leadership of the movement.

“I don’t want to cast aspersions on my colleagues because a country gets the leadership that it deserves. There are people who were with Mr Moi because at one time Kanu was the only party and there was nothing you could do if you wanted to survive in politics,” he said

He added that President Kibaki had let Kenyans down by failing to fulfil promises to deliver a new constitution within 100 days, fight corruption, fight tribalism, ensure security and create 500,000 jobs a year.

Mr Odinga dismissed as a myth the notion that certain communities cannot lead the country.

“There are some people who are still living in the past, obsessed with the old backward ideologies and biases, who categorise communities as this and that and look down upon cultural practices of others. That is why they are still caught in the time warp of the stigmatisation of the community I come from that we can’t lead.’’

Painful slur

He described it as a “very painful slur” for anyone to say a Luo cannot be elected President.

“How would the Luo feel if you tell them that theirs is just to vote for others? It means that they are not full citizens of the country. Then somebody would ask, why are we in Kenya? Why don’t we secede and become an independent state, or go to Uganda or Tanzania where these things are not an issue?”

Asked to list three things he thinks the Government had done well, Mr Odinga responded: “Don’t forget that I was also part of the Government for three years, and I feel I should also share in some of his successes. I was very much part of the policy formulation.”

Mr Odinga argued that free primary education was the brainchild of the National Development Party.

“Look at the NDP manifesto in 1997 that had free primary education, and the DP manifesto of that year that had none.”

But he commended the revival of moribund bodies like the Kenya Meat Commission and the Kenya Cooperative Creameries.