Deputy President Dr William Ruto’s camp is no longer at peace. Or is it? Has anyone been able to tell ODM leader Raila Odinga’s role in the government so far?
Well, Raila’s spokesman Dennis Onyango maintains the ODM leader “is not an employee of the government”.
According to Mr Onyango, Raila “is only helping the country get past its bitter divisions and to move forward in line with his agreement with President Uhuru Kenyatta”.
But look at the treatment the government is giving Raila! Do you remember the time Ruto arrived in Nyeri for his Tanga tanga tour only to find top security personnel withdrawn from the venue? No County Commissioner, no government security officers!
But when Raila visited Kiambu County on Friday to officiate the groundbreaking ceremony of Tatu City, his new found status now included heightened security and increased protocol.
Raila who made his way to the venue right after jetting back into the country from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, was welcomed to the venue by Kiambu’s top security personnel headed by County Commissioner Wilson Wanyanga.
He had attended a conference on infrastructure under the Belt and Road Initiative in Ethiopia.
After conducting an aerial tour of the development, he was walked to the VIPs area for a short briefing on the project’s status before making his way to the venue at about noon, an hour after the scheduled start off time.
When he rose to speak, he said his visit was one of the fruits of the handshake.
“I bring you greetings from the President. I told him I am coming here. He knows I am here and he sent blessings for this project,” he said.
Attended the groundbreaking ceremony for Unity Homes at Tatu City and took the opportunity to ask Kenyans to embrace the idea of Special Economic Zones. I also appealed for measures to address the high cost of land which is scaring away potential investors from our country. pic.twitter.com/SHwbnKNlkk
— Raila Odinga (@RailaOdinga) May 31, 2019
He outlined the issues the government is working on to enable coexistence among Kenyans.
“We want to change how some things are run. We have repeatedly said so many times that corruption is an animal we are going to deal with irrespective of who is committing it,” he said.
His elevated status in government appears to be causing some discomfort within Dr Ruto’s camp.
Pokot South MP David Pkosing views Mr Odinga’s “hanging around the President” as nursing hopes of being endorsed for presidency in the 2022 polls.
“This is a serious miscalculation because the politics of endorsement has a history of failure in this country.”
In the meantime, Mr Odinga’s public assignments continue to raise interest and panic.
The kind of collaboration that saw Mr Odinga received by a host of senior government officials at Tatu City on Friday has over the time become the norm, with government ministers and governors paying visits to his Upper Hill private offices.
The opposite is the case in Dr Ruto’s frequent tours across the country. For instance, that same Friday, there was no top government official in sight when he visited Kisii and Nyamira counties for various events.