AU representative Raila Odinga has cleared the airwaves on the renewed efforts to fight corruption. Raila has revealed that the efforts are not targeting DP William Ruto and his allies.
Raila said there is a general misconception that DP Ruto is the target in the concerted efforts to fight graft.
He said no particular individual or region is being targeted but the objective is to ensure that public money is not stolen by a few individuals.
“President Uhuru Kenyatta and I are committed to fighting the vice of corruption. Let every corrupt person carry his or her own cross. It can be my mother, child or sister. We should not personalise or regionalise the fight against corruption,” he said.
Raila was speaking on Wednesday night during KTN’s point-blank show hosted by his former PA and political analysts Tonny Gachoka.
He said there cannot be meaningful development in the country with the level of theft of public funds.
He was responding to a question by Gachoka if the graft war was targetting the DP.
The ODM party leader also reiterated the need to amend the Constitution through a referendum.
While noting that there is no perfect constitution anywhere in the world, Raila said the 2010 law was hurriedly written and promulgated under the pressure resulting from 2007/8 conflict and its now due for amendment.
“We don’t need to copy paste things from other countries, we can do them our way to benefit our people. For example, we need to reduce the counties. This doesn’t mean we are killing them. We are just working on a better way to reduce the tax burden on Kenyans,” he said.
The former PM was also quick to mention that the referendum is not aimed at creating a position for him or President Uhuru in 2022.
He said both Uhuru and himself had made a resolve to not discuss or focus on 2022 politics during their March 9, 2018, handshake.
“Both of us had been sworn in as presidents. We sat down and agreed we cannot have two presidents in one country and I agreed to step aside for Uhuru and focus on uniting the country by working together and not engaging in 2022 politics,” Raila said.
Raila was sworn in as the people’s president after insisting president Uhuru is an illegitimate ruler and that Kenya urgently needs saving.
He took what has been termed a symbolic oath at Uhuru Park in Nairobi on January 30.