The state has slammed Cord leader Raila Odinga for chastising President Uhuru Kenyatta’s response to corruption.
It is those with “skeletons in their closets” who were the first to protest Uhuru’s approach, said the Presidency’s senior messaging director Eric Ng’eno.
Ng’eno claimed Raila’s “discomfort” has its roots in the “enormous scandals” his office faced in the past administration.
“The Kazi Kwa Vijana and maize scandals are just two of these colossal frauds on the people of Kenya. Discrediting the anti-corruption process is therefore at the heart of his short, medium and long-term personal interest,” he said.
“In the Grand Coalition government, Mr Odinga was big on stepping aside as a remedy for perceived integrity lapses in government. All of a sudden, he sees the process as cruel and a joke.”
In a statement to newsrooms on Monday, he said Raila’s “tantrums” indicate a leader “whose strategy and ideology on corruption have been overtaken by time”.
Ng’eno underlined that the anti-graft war is strong, systematic and large scale, saying the EACC’s corruption report was duly submitted to Uhuru and Parliament.
He accused Raila of lacking meaningful grounds for opposing the approach, adding that he is standing against the people of Kenya and has “lost it”.
Ng’eno said Uhuru’s apology for past offenses against Kenyans, “some of which Mr Odinga is intimately associated with”, was well received by the public.
“The 1982 attempted coup and 2007 post-election violence are some of the matters to which closure will never happen without Mr Odinga standing before the nation and explaining himself,” he noted.
Ng’eno was responding to Raila’s view that the public officials on the ‘list of shame’ should have been fired, not suspended.
Raila said on Monday that Uhuru acted as a whistle blower, not an Executive authority, and accused him of breaching the Constitution by handing the report to Parliament.
“By failing to sack those he has the power to sack while admonishing those he has no powers over, the war on graft has once again been cheapened and turned into a game of musical chairs,” he said.
