Raila Odinga has addressed claims by President Uhuru Kenyatta that the opposition leader was at the centre of the 2007/8 post-election violence.
The President while on a tour of Kisii claimed that Raila played a central role in the violence but he blamed it on DP Ruto.
“Raila was at the centre of the 2007 chaos in which Kenyans fought but he blamed it on Ruto,” he told a gathering of leaders at Nyanturago Stadium in Kisii county.
“Yeye ndio aliwasha moto (He is the one who lit the fire)” he said calling for national reconciliation.
The president also said Internally Displaced People from the community will be compensated next month.
In his statement on Wednesday, Raila challenged Uhuru to compensate families affected by the violence and claimed that Kenya has stagnated because of the empire his family and associates assembled corruptly using public resources.
Read the full statement below:
I have learnt of claims by President Uhuru Kenyatta while visiting Kisii earlier today that I played a central role in the 2007/2008 post-election violence and that I am responsible for Kenya’s stagnation. We wish to state as follows:
1. We understand the desperation of the President for something to hang on to and reenergise his depressed 2013 voting bloc. We however advise the President to look around his entourage as he visits Kisii and also look into the mirror if he is interested in the truth on the 2007/2008 violence.
2. We remind the President that the Gusii land he is visiting is littered with post-election violence victims who are yet to be compensated, including a widow who had only her husband’s skull to burry. We hope the President has had time to ask whether she has been at his rallies and if she believes his story.
3. The President needs to look no further than the empire his family and associates assembled corruptly using public resources, if he is keen to understand why Kenya stagnated while the Republic of Korea moved forward. In the ill-acquired wealth of the family and associates lies Kenya’s lost years.
4. The Gusii people need no lecture on who initiated the infrastructural transformation in their county. Neither do they need to be told who the high priest of corruption in the country is. They are only too aware.
THE RT. HON RAILA ODINGA
ODM PARTY/ CORD COALITION LEADER
MARCH 22, 2017
