Raila: I’m not ready to work for Jubilee

Former PM Raila Odinga addresses journalists at Evangelical Lutheran Church in Nairobi on Sunday.  [Photo:Boniface Okendo/Standard]

By Allan Kisia and Abigael Sum

Nairobi, Kenya: Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga has declared he is not interested in a State job following speculation President Uhuru Kenyatta was considering him for a posting.

Raila was categorical that President Uhuru had neither offered him a job nor had he asked for one from the Jubilee Government.

“I have a job already. I am working for the people of Kenya and my hands are full,” he said Sunday at Evangelical

Lutheran Church in Nairobi where he attended a service.

Raila had an unsuccessful run for the presidency under the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy in the March 4 presidential vote.

He challenged President Uhuru’s victory but the Supreme Court upheld his election.

Sunday, Raila said he was dismayed by reports the reason he was yet to announce his next move was because he is waiting for a job from the Government.

Reports in a local paper (not The Standard) had said that Uhuru had made a job offer to Raila in the diplomatic circles.

It was reported that Uhuru and his deputy William Ruto have been keen to have Mr Odinga take up a State job. It further said Raila could also be considering joining Parliament or running CORDfrom outside Parliament.

But Sunday Raila dismissed the reports.

“Why say reliable sources told us. Who can be more reliable than the President and me? They should have called the President and me to verify the facts,” he stated.

He reiterated that no offer had been made to him and that neither had he rejected or accepted any offer.

“People are calling me to find out if I had been given a job. I am busy and have a lot of other things to do,” he reiterated.

Raila said Kenya now has a President and CORD is the official Opposition in Parliament.

Fight for change

“Our work now as the Opposition is to keep the Government in check. We are supposed to tell the Government when it is losing direction,” he added.

He said the Government and the Opposition all have a responsibility of giving Kenyans a life they deserve.

He noted that Kenyans would continue to fight for change.

“We must continue to open up the democratic space. We must live to fight for it and to protect it,” he added.

Raila urged Kenyans to consolidate the gains they have made so far in their efforts to broaden the democratic space.

“We don’t want politics of exclusion. Everybody must be involved,” he stated.

Leader of Minority in the National Assembly, Francis Nyenze and MPs Oburu Odinga (Nominated), Millie Odhiambo (Mbita), Simba Arati (Dagoretti North) and Chris Wamalwa (Kimilili) accompanied him.

Raila said he is disturbed by reports indicating that he has not been in the limelight lately because he is waiting for a job.

He asked Kenyans not to feel sorry for him because the electoral body did not declare him the presidential winner of the March 4 elections.

He said Kenyans should focus on making their future lives better and not the concluded elections.

It was reported that Raila is working on his memoirs, following his defeat in the last General Election.

The report claimed there is a job awaiting the former Prime Minister in the diplomatic circles, but that it would be announced after Uhuru meets Raila. It quoted another senior aide saying that Raila was writing his autobiography.

Good Constitution

Oburu reminded Kenyans that they are in a new dispensation since they have a good Constitution and a devolved Government.

“Unfortunately, the people guiding the Constitution are the same people who opposed it before it went to the referendum. We don’t know if they will fully implement it,” he added.

He added that CORD would be watching the conduct of Government from the Opposition benches.

“We have been in the Opposition before. It is something we know very well because we have been doing it for a very long time,” said Oburu.

Millie Odhiambo thanked God for seeing the country through a peaceful election.

“When you ask God for something, he says no, wait or yet. I believe God said wait for us,” she stated.

Wamalwa promised the congregation that CORDwould hold the Government accountable and hailed Raila for fighting for the wellbeing of Kenyans. “What is meant for you cannot be taken away. It can only be delayed,” he said.