Defense CS Aden Duale on Saturday called out opposition leader Raila Odinga over his secession remarks.
Azimio leaders who converged for prayers at Wiper party leader Kalonzo Musyokas Yatta farm in Machakos county on Tuesday, declared they will on Tuesday next week launch a collection of signatures from Kenyans dissatisfied with President William Ruto’s leadership style, to petition the United Nation into splitting the country into two republics.
Raila said the Kenya Kwanza administration had failed to deal with the issues they had raised, and that it was time to pursue self determination.
But speaking in Masalani town, Duale scoffed of at Raila accusing him of always wanting to destabilise the government of the day whenever he loses elections.
“I want to tell Raila Odinga that you went to the election to aspire to be the next president of the republic of Kenya and to be the commander of armed forces. It is very irresponsible for leaders of your stature to stand on a podium and call for secession and division of our country. It is very unfortunate, I did not think you can go that low.”
Duale revisited the 2017 incident where Raila swore himself in as the peoples president saying President Ruto will not give in to the opposition leader's tactics and intimidations to be accommodated in government.
According to Duale, issues like lowering the cost of living which the opposition have been advancing has been dealt with by the Kenya Kwanza government, noting that he has since changed goal posts and was now calling for secession.
"He started with the issue of the soaring prices of commodities which the government has dealt with. Then he brought in the issue of opening the servers and he was told that there are no commissioners. All this games Raila and his team are playing are well known to us and he won't succeed this time round. Ruto and I know him very well. He thinks he can intimidate us but he won't succeed,” he said.
"The Constitution Article 1 under the preamble talks about a unitary state called Kenya and 47 counties units. Mr Raila please go back to the preamble of the constitution."
On the issue of reopening the boarders, Duale said the issue was being actively handled at the highest level in government disclosing that once everything has been put in place, the borders will be opened with specific areas where goods will be passing through.
He was however quick to warn those with intentions of using 'panya routes' to smuggle in goods that the government will treat them as criminals.
-Edited by SKanyara