“I don’t support the creation of the Office of the Opposition Leader because I believe in the streets. When you make things too official that now there is an office and salary, these people will then tame Baba and am not for that” – Jalang’o said
Lang’ata MP Phelix Odiwuor alias Jalang’o claims that the efforts by President William Ruto’s administration to establish an Office of the Opposition Leader is a ruse to subdue Azimio’s -One Kenya Party leader Raila Odinga and in the process bring back the Building Bridges Initiative in disguise.
Jaloango was speaking during an interview with Citizen TV last week. The Langata legislator claimed that the Kenya Kwanza government is acting maliciously in supporting the stance. He alleges that the government wishes to create the office and control it because it is aware of Mr Odinga’s power and accomplishments in staging rallies. He contends that the most effective way to influence political change and hold the government accountable is through protests and public meetings. “I don’t support the creation of the office because I believe in the streets. When you make things too official that now there is an office and salary, these people will then tame Baba and am not for that,” he said
“The streets are louder any day than any official office. You have seen what the streets protests have been able to achieve, the same streets advocated for the new constitution that we have, there has been a lot of public participation that changed a lot and how the government checked. The office will be used to tame Baba.” He further noted that the government’s action is also a covert effort to resurrect the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI), which was first sponsored by the Odinga-led group but later ruled to be unlawful by the courts.
According to him, a significant number of suggestions in the program to which President Ruto’s team vehemently objected include posts like the Prime Cabinet Secretary and the creation of formal opposition seats. “It is not something you just wake up one morning and create, these guys are just bringing back BBI in disguise, these are the same things that were in BBI such as the position Mr Musalia Mudavadi is holding.”
Recently Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua accused opposition leader Raila Odinga of pushing for a handshake. According to Gachagua, Raila’s demonstrations were a desperate ploy to work with the government but he insisted that the president Ruto-led government was not going to work with him.
“Last time, he staged similar protests until he got himself into President Kenyatta and William Ruto’s government. Uhuru bought into his threats and let him into his handshake government and he wrecked it,” Gachagua claimed. “He can stick to the opposition. Let the old man hear it from me, here at the slopes of Mount Kenya, there will be no handshake. The only handshake President Ruto is interested in is with hustlers for the Hustler Fund,” Gachagua noted.
“Now that we have defeated him, he has again started the language of demonstrations and his goal is still the same, scare the president and be invited for a handshake. We do not want him in our government. He can protest all day but there will be no handshake.”
