U.S, UK trust Ruto more than Raila Odinga
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U.S, UK didn't trust Azimio leader Raila Odinga in the last election but instead saw Ruto as an ally according to political experts
U.S, UK didn’t trust Azimio leader Raila Odinga in the last election but instead saw Ruto as an ally according to political experts.
Former Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, blamed the Independence Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), the Judiciary, and foreign powers for his election loss.
According to Raila, foreign governments feared he would break up the monopolies they controlled in the market.
Later, he made unsupported charges that President William Ruto was soliciting funds to repay the foreign power brokers.
On Saturday, December 10, lawyer and governance expert Javas Bigambo reopened the debate by asserting that the West has never trusted Raila Odinga. Instead, they view President William Ruto as an ally.
While speaking to local media, Bigambo further revealed that Ruto’s policies are embraced by the West, citing the government’s recent dalliance with Bretton Woods Institutions (The World Bank and International Monetary Fund).
“The IMF and the World Bank are institutions primarily sponsored by the West, and their structural adjustment policies date back to the 1990s during the late president Moi’s regime and funding of programs such as the HIV/AIDS.
“Looking after Ruto’s visit to the West, policies such as financing of budget deficits, and conditional scaling of the NSSF contributions took prominence in his administration’s budding days,” he opined.
He further intimated that Odinga’s policies have always resembled the former Soviet Union regimes, which were socially leaning politically.
“To contextualize this, you need to look at Jaramogi Oginga’s politics that centred around soviet undertakings. He was aligned with the union that even brought about the construction of the “Russian Hospital” now referred to as Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital in Kisumu,” he remarked.
Bigambo hinted that western nations were scared of Odinga’s socialism-based views during the Soviet era as they deviate from western standards.
Raila denies being bullied to cancel the parallel Jamhuri Day event
He implied that while the Grand Coalition administration gave German firms a preference in state projects, that quickly changed once former President Uhuru Kenyatta assumed office and sided with the Chinese.
“His close association with German companies was prominent with the majority being given government projects and initiatives to undertake until when there was a change of guard,” he stated.
“During the just concluded elections, Odinga is quoted as saying that the West influenced the outcome of the presidential election in Kenya,” Bigambo underlined, citing the basis of his political analysis.
Raila’s tribulations, he argued, should be looked into the context of a man who has sacrificed a lot but has not achieved his main aim of being president.
“If the West was his ally, then during the 2008 Grand Coalition talks, they should have reigned in on the Kofi Annan-led process to have Raila run the government, but it did not happen,” he debunked.
The governance expert read differently from Odinga’s recent visit to the United States. US President Joe Biden invited Raila to a high-level meeting with other African leaders.
“Is it possible that the issue of the visit is to contain him? Because his proposed public consultations were going to be disruptive especially when the West embraced Ruto,” he noted.
Political Analyst Martin Andati concurred with Bigambo, stating that during the late presidents Mwai Kibaki and Uhuru Kenyatta’s tenure, their governments openly declared their association with the East (China).
“Raila only got support from the West in 2013, because of Uhuru’s stance of ‘going East’ but now the West fully supports Ruto and you can easily tell with the recent relationship the current government has with the IMF and the World Bank,” Andati opined.
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