Parliament incapacitated, compromised - Raila says

Azimio leader Raila Odinga has called out parliament over what he termed as a failure to execute its Constitutional mandate.

Raila criticized the 13th parliament for not coming out strong on issues of importance affecting the public like the high cost of living.

He said legislators had been both incapacitated and compromised by President William Ruto’s administration.

The ODM chief cited the concluded bipartisan talks alongside Ruto’s intention to privatize some of the government’s property and parastatals.

He warned that the public will have to take responsibility and stop such ‘irregularities’ by the Kenya Kwanza regime.

“Before trying to sell these state agencies, they incapacitated parliament. Nothing is happening in parliament. It has been compromised,” Raila said.

Raila spoke during the burial of the mother of Embakasi South MP Julius Mawathe in Mwala, Machakos County on Thursday.

He was accompanied by Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka.

“That’s the reason, it’s the people’s responsibility. The public must stop these issues,” Raila said.

He said that as Azimio leaders and affiliate parties, they were together.

Raila maintained that they won the 2022 general elections but were rigged out.

“As Azimio, we are together. Azimio family is big and we have a presence in the entire country. We couldn’t have been defeated last year,” Raila said.

He laughed off Ruto’s administration for what he termed as blaming its failures on the former regime.

“Kenya Kwanza administration still blames the former regime. They had no intention of getting the government. They didn’t imagine they could form the government. They had no plan to form the government,” Raila said.

Raila said he agreed with Ruto to settle their political differences through bipartisan talks after former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo’s intervention.

“We fronted Kalonzo in the talks since he knows how to mediate. Kalonzo went to talk with them. We had our demands and they had theirs. We got some of our demands. One important one is the high cost of living which is yet to be sorted. We said we solve it but they refused,” Raila said.

Raila said the Kenya Kwanza administration attempted to import maize, rice, and cooking oil, in a bid to reduce the cost of living in vain.

He said it was them who were importing the goods and making huge profits.

Raila said Anne Njeri was used by certain individuals to import oil into the country.

“The woman can’t afford Sh19 billion oil, she was used. They were using the strategy to steal our money,” Raila said.

“They have started now to sell government property like Kenya Pipeline Corporation, National Oil Corporation, KICC and KCC. The public must stop those issues."

Kalonzo said they did their best in the bi-partisan talks.

"I want to assure Kenyans that we did our best. I thank my brother Raila for entrusting us with this responsibility," Kalonzo said.

"As Azimio One Kenya, what we are saying is that the cost of living is very high. All the economic indicators are showing."

He added:

"Leave alone that KICC and KPLC. They have started selling Kenyans air. MPs, you need to look at the Climate Act 2023 as amended. They have started selling carbon credit to the world," Kalonzo said

The Wiper chief faulted the government's intentions to pay for national IDs.

"We are urging all Azimio members to register for IDs. We must defeat these people in 2027. Let's prepare for 2027. We reserve the right to public consultation," Kalonzo said.

He said Ruto has to agree with Raila on IEBC commissioners.

"We have agreed that those being deregistered by their parties, Azimio, there will be by-elections.

"We had lots of MPs as Azimio. But they were bought. The moment you are deregistered, you are deemed to have resigned. We have done our best to put Democratic discipline in this country."