Raila Odinga on Wednesday recounted how the regime of former President Mwai Kibaki successfully revitalized the economy, even as he lay in the sickbed.
The Azimio boss stated that they took over a financially strained government and had to formulate policies to steer the economy.
“When we came into government, we found a bankrupt government, Kibaki himself was sick but he could give us advice on what to do in the sickbed. We were there to implement what we had agreed on as our policies,” he said.
Raila mentioned that the government had pledged free primary education from the outset. However, they found empty government coffers.
“Kibaki told us that because we had promised this to the people we must implement it and he was on the sickbed when he was talking to me. I went and told our people that we must implement this free primary education this first term,” the ODM leader recalled.
Odinga said they implemented free primary education in the first year of their government. He mentioned that the enrollment of primary school children surged to the extent that the facilities were overwhelmed.
“There were no classrooms, children were learning under the trees, people were enrolled up to 84-year-old but we said it would go on. Donors began to come up and assist with structures and it was implemented and eventually became a true success,” he said.
Raila was addressing an event commemorating the 15th anniversary of Kibaki’s Party of National Unity (PNU). The party is currently led by former Meru Governor Peter Munya.
Kibaki assumed the presidency in December 2002 and took the oath of office while still recovering from a near-fatal accident.
