Kalonzo hits out at Uhuru, tells Kenyans to shun dictatorship

Wiper leader Kalonzo Musyoka (left), Mombasa senator Hassan Omar during a press conference at a Nairobi hotel on 4/7/15- [PHOTO/BEVERLYNE MUSILI/STANDARD]

Opposition leaders Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka at the weekend criticised President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto over widespread corruption in government.

Kalonzo launched a scathing attack on Jubilee, calling President Uhuru Kenyatta a dictator and his deputy William Ruto a man with a heavy baggage.

Raila later addressed an Okoa Kenya rally at Uriri Grounds in Migori where he said: “Uhuru should not cheat us that he is fighting corruption. Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru should also step aside for an audit to be done.”

He told the cheering crowd that toilets were already built before the Jubilee administration came into power and that they should not lie to Kenyans about the heavy spending on projects by the National Youth Service (NYS). He said some toilet had been built by the Grand Coalition before Jubilee came to power. Raila said NYS should be fully investigated in light of recent graft claims. (See separate story on page 20)

And in a rare bare-knuckled statement to the media earlier yesterday titled “The making of a dictator in a failing administration”, Kalonzo described Jubilee as a “crumbling administration” presiding over “tech-savvy looting of public funds through high-level institutionalised corruption”.

He claimed Uhuru was reinventing dictatorship, that his administration was pulling all stops to protect Waiguru from accountability and that the President had fallen hostage to an “evil cabal of corrupt cartels”.

He spoke at a press conference held at Serena Hotel lawns flanked by his party Secretary General Hassan Omar, Minority Leader in the National Assembly Francis Nyenze, Senator Judith Sijjeny, Nairobi Deputy Governor Jonathan Mueke and other top party officials.

“It would be a waste of precious time trying to respond to Ruto’s unsolicited advice to CORD principals on our winning formula for the 2017 General Election. Suffice it to say that Ruto has enough personal baggage to grapple with. But if appointing himself political adviser to CORD principals would give him some comic relief, then let the self-declared hustler be,” Kalonzo fumed against Ruto’s remarks earlier in the week that CORD will be vanquished if it settles on him (the former VP) again as running mate in 2017 polls.

Kalonzo tore into alleged failings of the Jubilee administration, citing runway corruption, insecurity and poverty. He said despite Uhuru calling global attention to pervasive corruption in his office, he had refused to name the fat cats.

He said Jubilee’s dalliance with corrupt cartels would end up making Anglo Leasing and Goldenberg scams look like child play. He also claimed the President was using the war against corruption to exclude “outsider” communities from government while protecting “sacred but corrupt government insiders”.

Shady dealings

“It is a pity that statecraft and resources are being mobilised to insulate Waiguru from accountability on suspected shady dealings in her ministry while at the same time unleashing dogs of war on ‘peripheral’ CSs and other senior government actors on flimsy allegations of corruption,” he said.

He condemned what he called “outright endorsement and blatant public display of affection” for Waiguru by State House. He said the defence offered in her support while other ministers were left to fry on their own is “the embodiment of leadership failure”. A fortnight ago, Kalonzo appeared in court in solidarity with suspended Lands CS Charity Ngilu whom he hugged and exchanged pleasantries with. Ngilu has been charged with obstructing investigations into alleged fraud in her ministry.

Yesterday, the former VP said CORD would not drop the demands for Waiguru to either step aside or be forced out of office to pave way for proper investigation into the award of tenders and jobs in the Devolution docket.

He said corruption aside, Jubilee had lost moral authority to be in office on account of spiralling insecurity. “Anyone in search of concrete evidence that this government either does not care or has no clue how to secure its citizens should pay attention to official response to the commercialised and politically-instigated cattle rustling escapades in parts of the country and the half-hearted response to rag-tag militias terrorising Kenyans in rural and urban settings,” he said.

Kalonzo said CORD’s call for dialogue in tackling insecurity and other national challenges had already been endorsed by Kenya’s development partners but continued to be cheapened by “praise-singers and poets in the President’s court”.

The international support notwithstanding, he added, dialogue is further legitimised by the results of the 2013 General Election.

“This government is in office on the strength of a Supreme Court ruling and not on account of popular vote. We in CORD must remind President Uhuru and his deputy that we carry the aspirations of more than half of this country by region and numbers,” he said.

Imperial rule

He said President Uhuru was sneaking back imperial rule through “executive decrees” and “presidential orders”. He said the decrees must put all Kenyans on their guard to reject “21 century dictatorship”.

Since his election in 2013, President Uhuru has issued a number of written and verbal executive orders on parastatal reforms, on terrorism, on police recruitments, on e-procurement and this week on illicit liquor among others.

Yesterday, Kalonzo dismissed Thursday’s announcement that President Uhuru Kenyatta had been voted Africa’s President of the Year by All-Africa Students Union.

“He was voted by who, a group of students? We must get serious about these things. Any group can declare anyone anything. Second and most important, he was voted against who? We know of reputable awards like the Mo Ibrahim Foundation one which hasn’t been won for some years now. Please, let’s not cheapen these things,” he said.

The Wiper leader further condemned top Jubilee leadership’s habit of wishing away 2017 election as though they had already won it. He said 2017 will actually be the waterloo of the Jubilee administration and all it stands for.

Speaking in Migori, ODM chairman John Mbadi claimed that the President and his deputy dish out money. “Where is that money coming from?” asked Mbadi. He called on Jubilee to get more serious with the fight against graft.

­—Additional reporting by Protus Onyango