Followers

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Raila Comes Clean (not that he meant to!)

Some recent statements by Raila Odinga have struck me as rather odd.

On Sunday, the Standard quoted him as saying:
"Kibaki’s men wanted Moi prosecuted after the 2002 poll but I stood firm and said it would set a bad precedent for the country."
He proudly declares that he was responsible the cover-up of all cover-ups: allowing Moi and his cronies to go scot-free after 24 years of plunder. Why should we believe his promises to go after the Murungis and Mwirarias of the current administration? Surely he wouldn't want to go against the "good precedent" he himself created?

Then on Tuesday, he wrote (again in the Standard):
"In one of the policy contradictions, the Government demolishes habitable houses and still hopes to spend Sh884 billion to upgrade slums. . . . Housing minister Mr Soita Shitanda admitted that the Government has not lived up to its social responsibilities and pledges. The Government has constructed only 30,000 housing units in four years as opposed to 150,000 units a year President Kibaki promised in 2002."
Wasn't Raila the minister in charge when the government went round demolishing houses in 2004? Wasn't he Housing Minister for 2 years prior to Shitanda? By his own account then, he not is only guilty of policy contradictions but also failed miserably to achieve his housing targets during his tenure. Most alarmingly for one who's running for President, the article does not contain a single policy initiative that, if elected, he would implement to solve the housing problem.

4 comments:

3N said...

It is too painful to try and understand what Raila and most of our political leaders say regarding policy.
There is no consistency in their statements or actions, good thing the Kenyan electorate does not seem to care or hold any politician responsible for their remarks.

Anonymous said...

I think he was misquoted or he misspoke here.
He seems to be talking against being "vengeful".
He must have said, or meant to say persecuted instead of prosecuted.

In any case, the man is so busy courting the Kalenjin vote, he is speaking through his ass.

Anonymous said...

@ Gathara,
Cut the bozos some slack.

The idea, we would hope, it to take away as much descretion from them as possible.

Raila is here playing theatre/politics.
I dont dream, when i dream, of politicians who do things, i dream of politicians who get out of the way.

That is why often times i pray for devolution and gridlock

Gathara said...

Alexcia,
Have you noticed that "Raila a liar" is a palindrome? Perhaps the gods are trying to warn us or something.