Stop blaming Uhuru for your failures, Raila Azimio chief Raila Odinga on Teusday led his ODM brigade on an onslaught against the Kenya Kwanza administration for continuously blaming the UhuRuto regime for their failures in running the country.
Odinga said that it is evident that President William Ruto has failed in running the government and was busy looking for excuses by blaming the former regime.
“It is one and a half years now but Ruto is still busy blaming former president Uhuru Kenyatta for the Kenya Kwanza government incompetency,”
“He forgets that he was the DP at that time,” said Odinga.
Odinga was speaking in Mombasa after witnessing the launch of the Sh15 million Governor’s Scholarship program to 400 bright needy students by Governor Abdulswamad Nassir.
The ODM boss said that all the 47 governors inherited debts in their counties, but none have come out to blame their predecessors the way the president is hipping tones of blames on the former regime.
“These people have failed to run government, that is why they are busy throwing blames every day,”
“Furthermore, no government in the world has no debt, even the super powers like America also have debts,” Odinga said.
He stated that Africa has is not in a debt crisis, but what is happening in most countries is mismanagement of public resources.
Odinga said that the continent was suffering from inefficiency in leadership full of gluttony.
“No country can develop without borrowing, what matters most is where you invest the money. You cannot be investing in consumption and expect returns,” he said.
He reiterated the need to have a national dialogue on debt management in the country.
Odinga said that when he and the late president Mwai Kibaki toppled the Nyayo regime 24-year era in the 2002 general election, they inherited empty public coffers with huge outstanding debts, but they never apportioned blames but instead looked for ways of turning around the economy.
“We never increased taxes yet we inherited empty public coffers. What we did differently was to block corruption loopholes and this enabled us to achieve one of the biggest agenda that we had of providing free primary and secondary education,” Odinga said.
At that time, Odinga said, most schools lacked infrastructure, but through the government’s efforts, international partners came on board to provide funds for free education and also build classrooms.
He at the same time accused the government of undermining devolution stating that the Kenya Kwanza administration was plotting to return some devolved function to the national government in order to continue denying county governments money.
Odinga said that the government wants to return public health and running of ECDE centers to the national government, yet these were devolved to the counties.
“Shame on you for wanting to take us backwards by wanting to return devolved functions to you in order to deny counties money,”
“This is a disaster in waiting that all Kenyans must join hands and resist. The government does not want to bring down resources to the counties,” he said.
Mombasa Governor Abdulswamad Nassir scolded the president warning him that he cannot continue blaming Uhuru for the Kenya Kwanza administration failures.
Nassir said that no country is built on blame games adding that the president should stop using this excuse for his failures.
“Kenyans are tired of this, if your handlers cannot tell you this, I will. You can’t constantly be blaming Uhuru, everybody who came to government including my colleague governors inherited debts from our predecessors, but that should not be an excuse for you to fail,” said Nassir.
“Even I from time to time call Joho on issues I am stuck with to get advice. A leader looks at a situation and every obstacle and turns it into an opportunity and not always looking for excuses,” he added.
A leader, he said, is measured by what they are able to deliver, not blame games.
“Are we going to lament for five years?” Nassir asked.
ODM deputy party leader and former Mombasa governor Hassan Joho said that leadership is progressive and as such, leaders should pick up from where their predecessors left and do even more.
“Nassir picked from where I left, I picked from the defunct municipal councils. One thing we must remember is that we need to accept the fact that we will one day leave office, the best you can do is stand out and be counted,” said Joho.
