Coalitions in holier-than-thou game
With election day drawing closer, the main coalitions, the Azimio-One Kenya of Raila Odinga and Deputy President William Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza – have narrowed their attacks to integrity questions.
The rivals are pointing fingers at each other on issues of trust and accountability in management public resources.
These are the issues at the centre of refusal by Raila to participate in today’s presidential debate, with the Azimio team demanding the event focuses on corruption, integrity, ethics and governance.
“He (Ruto) is a man who has no regard for ethics, public morals or shame. That is why he has demanded that the debate does not focus on corruption, integrity, ethics and governance – the key existential questions that Kenya faces,” said Raila’ s campaign spokesman Makau Mutua.
“These issues sit at the core of the Azimio campaign. And any debate devoid of these questions would be an insult to the intelligence of Kenyans. That is why we do not intend to share a national podium with a person who lacks basic decency,” said Mutua.
While Raila, his running mate Martha Karua and their surrogates paint the DP and his running mate Rigathi Gachagua as people who have integrity deficit, Kenya Kwanza is projecting the Azimio pair as a beneficiary of corruption, whose campaign is being bankrolled by people who want to continue looting public resources.
University of Nairobi lecturer and political analysts Harman Manyora says the contest had been reduced to which team has the character and history to save the country.
“The 2022 election question is on character and personality. The county is doing badly and it needs someone to get it out of the mess and that is what the integrity and good governance issue is dominating the campaigns,” Manyora told People Daily.
The integrity question featured prominently during the running mate debate pitting Karua and Gachagua. While the Narc Kenya leader pointed out Gachagua’s record, including a pending corruption case, the Mathira lawmaker said Karua had been picked to protect interests of the rich and corrupt.
Gachagua also accused Karua of receiving kickbacks from an international firm and grabbing land, claims which she denied.
Deputy President’s defence
Raila has on many occasions claimed that Ruto had looted billions of shillings from the government and was using the proceeds to run his campaign.
“Where do they get that money? That is why we are promising to fight corruption and our competition cannot be entrusted because they are the people who have been stealing,” Raila told a rally in Nyahururu on Sunday.
But Ruto has defended himself from the allegations, while at the same time insisting Raila and Karua had no moral authority to lecture them on corruption, saying they were beneficiaries of theft of public resources.
‘‘You are giving us lectures on fighting corruption when you are hostages of State capture,” the DP said, adding that the Raila was being funded by people who stole money from sick people, in reference to the Kemsa scandal in which billions of shillings is suspected to have been lost in Covid-19 related procurement scandals.
Karua has revisited Ruto’s past court cases related to land grabbing, including the 110-acre land belonging to 2007/08 PEV victim Adrian Muteshi and the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) land, where he has built Weston Hotel.
“A court ruled that you grabbed someone’s land. Another court says that the land you have developed is a public land. You have stood before court being accused of stealing from a government institution. If you entrust Kenya in the hands of such people where will the country head? We are in a very dangerous place and if we are not careful how we vote, we will plunge into a hole that we will not come out of this century,” Karua said.
Agriculture CS Peter Munya, who backs Raila not to attend the debate with Ruto said: “You have been looting and then giving out handouts to pretend that you are a good person. That is not possible. It cannot be that you are involved in grabbing and taking their resources.”
