Why Uhuru Relinquished Power to Raila-Orengo

President Kenyatta, Senator James Orengo and Raila Odinga PHOTO: Courtesy

Veteran opposition politician and senior counsel, James Orengo, has come out to lay bare the intrigues that led to the much-praised March 9 handshake between President Kenyatta and Raila Odinga.

Speaking to K24’s Anne Kiguta, the Siaya senator revealed that a prediction he made days before the handshake had materialized and that President Kenyatta had ceded some ground.

While in Gem sub-county in February 2018, Orengo said that Kenyatta would have to vacate office without bloodshed.

“Uhuru will surrender the presidency without bloodshed being involved. Raila will, thereafter, take up the reins of government.

“The current situation in Kenya will force Uhuru to relinquish power prematurely,” he stated then.

Pressed to clarify the validity of his statement, Orengo rubbished the perception that President Kenyatta was more powerful now, and that the country’s Opposition was as good as dead.

” I don’t think so, if you see the flow of people who go to Capitol Hill (Raila Odinga’s office) from Cabinet Secretaries, Principal Secretaries, and political leaders, power has not completely shifted but there are two centres of power,” Orengo stated.

The Senate minority leader added that going into 2022, President Kenyatta will have to relinquish power either by institutional change or political practice.

Since the handshake came into the picture, a section of Jubilee Party leaders allied to Deputy President Dr William Ruto have read malice in the arrangement.

DP Ruto has, on several occasions, accused Odinga of coming in to scuttle his pact with President Kenyatta over 2022 the presidency.

Ruto has maintained that Odinga was a divisive figure who had come into the government to sow discord in the ruling party.

The rise of two factions would be occasioned by the handshake, one in support, and the other opposed to the handshake; the groups that have since been known as Kieleweke and Tangatanga respectively.

 

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