The now internationally popular handshake between President Uhuru Kenyatta and his erstwhile arch-rival, Opposition leader Raila Odinga, seems to have brought about relative calm in Kenya.
Majority of Kenyans have welcomed the move while some have not as they feel that the handshake is meant to make some of their beloved leaders irrelevant in the political scene.
For instance, supporters allied to Deputy President William Ruto have been so jittery of the handshake with claims that Raila Odinga is on a mission to scuffle the Jubilee Party and in the process jeopardize William Ruto’s Presidential ambitions.
Amani National Congress Leader Musalia Mudavadi on the other hand feels otherwise. The former Vice President now feels that the handshake has been mistaken as a licence to steal public funds.
Mudavadi said even though the handshake between President Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga brought tranquility, it has gagged Opposition MPs from pointing out the ills in government.
Speaking in Mombasa, Mudavadi said corruption has become rampant in the National Assembly to an extent that reports are being doctored. He said MPs have neglected their oversight role.
He cited the debates on contraband sugar and illegal maize imports whose outcomes were marred with bribery allegations.
“Parliament has gone to bed with the Executive and abandoned its sacred function of keeping the government in check. Parliament reports are either altered or diluted and mutilated to protect partisan interests and not those of the public,” Mudavadi said.
Mudavadi’s sentiments have been echoed by a number of Kenyans who actually feel that corruption and rot in government has increased ever since the now famous handshake.
The opposition is the most efficient of all the other bodies responsible for checking the excesses of the government. It is the biggest, fiercest and the strongest watchdog, or at least it should be.
In the past, some of the biggest corruptions perpetuated by the government or by the people in the government have been unearthed and the perpetrators exposed by the opposition. The Anglo- Leasing Scandal, The Goldenberg Scandal, and the more recent Eurobond Scandal have all been brought to the public eye by the opposition.
This grand union between the government and the opposition begs the questions, who will monitor the government? Who will champion for the rights of the common citizen? Who will protect the citizens against unscrupulous leaders? Is this union really for the good of the people or does it have undertones of individual ulterior and selfish motives?