Watch this space, Raila to Kenya Kwanza

Azimio leader Raila Odinga is keeping his cards close to his chest.

On Saturday, September 16 at a press conference in Nairobi, Odinga said that he is not disclosing his next move, as some Kenyans demand of him, over the high cost of living situation in the country.

He stated that Azimio is planning on making moves to stop the government from increasing the high cost of living.

"Kenyans are tired. Very soon we will announce our next move regarding the cost of living. This time round we are not asking Kenyans to go on the streets, we have the signatures and we plan on using them accordingly. Till then all I can say is watch this space," he said.

On Saturday, the Coalition gave Kenya Kwanza a 30 per cent score for its first year of governance, terming it as 'disastrous'.

Odinga faulted the Kenya Kwanza administration saying it has failed to deliver most of the promises made to Kenyans during their campaigns in 2022.

In their statement, President William Ruto and his administration have so far failed in several areas including observing the role of the Constitution he swore on.

Governance

On governance, Azimio noted that Kenya Kwanza "has completely fallen below the bar on all aspects."

The coalition, meeting in Nairobi claimed that Ruto's administration had a consistent pattern of coercing the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to drop some corruption cases.

"Kenya Kwanza has formulated and is implementing a subtle policy to keep a network of corrupt individuals in the National Executive, state organs and agencies. Those getting appointed either have their investigations terminated or have their cases withdrawn from court," it said.

Human Rights

Further, the coalition accused the government of allowing torture and extra-judicial killings by police officers which is against human rights in the country.

"Under Kenya Kwanza regime, at least 128 cases of extrajudicial killings have been recorded in Kenya in the past 11 months. Additionally, the cases of torture doubled within the period by 250 cases. Surprisingly, Ruto has congratulated the Police force for the violent response, especially during the protest period."

Inclusivity

The Raila-Odinga-led coalition also faulted Kenya Kwanza for failing to uphold the two-thirds gender rule in the appointment of its state officials.

"Only 13 per cent of the Permanent Secretaries are women and on the other side, just 31 per cent of the Cabinet consist of women falling short of the promised 50/50. Additionally, most of the public appointments have been based on political and tribal considerations and not merit-based."

"An analysis of the Permanent Secretary appointments for instance indicates that the Central and Rift Valley regions have 26 slots out of the 51 slots, (13 slots each from the two regions). This ideally means that the other 43 tribes are left in the scramble for the remaining half of the slots."

Despite under-delivering, Azimio also noted that prices of certain commodities have gone down.

Among them is the price of cooking gas and cooking oil which according to them has gone down by 12.7 and 18.5 per cent respectively.