Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga has said that the current War on corruption is not targeted at dimming Deputy president Ruto’s political ambitions in 2022.
Speaking during an interview with Toy Gachoka aired on KTN Wednesday, Mr Odinga said that their joint efforts with President Kenyatta to purge corruption was in a bid to minimize the vice.
TG: Your worthy opponent, Deputy President William Ruto, went to Chatham House and the question about corruption emerged during a television interview.
The issue of corruption seems, to allies of Ruto, to be a behind-the-scene scheme between you and Uhuru to tie his hands and paint him and his supporters as the most corrupt. Is the feeling justified?
Raila: (Laughs) our war on corruption does not target any particular individual. It is a war that aims to reduce the impact of the vice.
We are basically looking at the entire society. It has become untenable. No country in the world has managed to eradicate corruption completely, but it is what is being done when it is discovered.
It does not matter who is involved. We should not try to regionalise it and say so and so is targeted or that so and so is also corrupt. Two wrongs don’t make a right.
If Raila is corrupt, he will also carry his cross some day. But that does not stop you from carrying yours now because he (Raila) is not carrying one today.
Some of these are tired arguments that have been tried elsewhere. We have reached a stage where corruption cannot allow for further development. There is a level of corruption that still allows growth, but in our case, nothing is left.