Donate land to the poor, Raila tells Uhuru

By GEOFFREY MOSOKU

Nairobi, Kenya: Prime Minister Raila Odinga on Wednesday intensified his bare knuckle campaign style by hitting at Jubilee presidential rival Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto.

The PM took a swipe at his rivals who have dismissed his credentials on the basis of age saying some people who are talking about reforms are sitting on huge pieces of land and do not pity the poor who are landless.

Raila specifically mentioned his main challenge in the Kibaki succession, Uhuru Kenyatta to match his word with actions by redistributing land to the poor saying that the time for leaders to stop empty rhetoric and match their words with action was now.

“Recently, I spoke about returning grabbed land and today I am asking Uhuru to give up his land to the poor. There are thousands of Kenyans out there who do not have land and some don’t even have a place to construct a house, let him surrender the thousands of acres of land he owns to these people,” he said.

The premier said that the jubilee leaders have been chest thumping out there that they are the ones who will say and act and challenged them to prove critics wrong by acting.  

Raila took a jibe at Jubilee deputy president nominee William Ruto for repeatedly proclaiming the tittle of a ‘hustler’ yet he was extremely wealthy.

“There are other who call themselves hustlers and yet they have accumulated a lot of wealth; they should come out and declare how they made their money,” the PM said.

Raila was addressing thousands of ecstatic supporters who had braved heavy downpour that pounded the city Wednesday afternoon at Uhuru Park to listen to him moments after the IEBC had accepted his nomination papers. The rally also was used to flag off 47 Cord branded land cruisers that will be used for the coalition campaign teams in the counties.

The Cord candidate and his running mate Kalonzo Musyoka once again using football analogy predicted a land slide victory in favour of their side.

Kalonzo said they will thrash their rivals three goals to nil while Raila moved the crowd with laughter as he commentated at an imaginary football match in which he scored to end the game at the first 90 minutes.

They Cord leaders declared that following their successful nomination, the IEBC’s action to accept the nomination papers had signaled the beginning of a tough battle that must end at victory.

 “The referee has inspected all the team and certified them. He has blown the whistle and the game has just begun. This contest is between those who want change and those who believe in status quo,” Wetang’ula said of the nominations.

Kalonzo declared; “Today, the whistle has now been blown by referee Isaack Hassan who has accepted our papers. The battle has begun. Raila and I have now removed the weaponry from the armoury to engage in a war we must win. This will not be a battle to kill each other but a democratic contest that will determine if Kenya is going to emerge strong and be respected among nations.” The VP said that Cord leadership will campaign in every village, district, church, and mosque and even conduct a house to house campaign to ensure the alliance scores an emphatic victory.

“I will campaign for my brother and friend Raila in Central, Rift Valley, Coast, North eastern and every corner of the country to ensure he is elected the 4th president,” the VP said.

During the meeting, only Raila, Kalonzo, Moses Wetang’ula and Cyrus Jirongo addressed the crowd as the program was cut short following the heavy rains.

Kalonzo said the rains were signs that the Cord coalition was headed to a major victory as it only started pouring just after they had finished returning their nomination papers to IEBC.

The Cord leaders told their supporters that it’s only their government which will unite all tribes in Kenya and create jobs for millions of unemployed youths as contained in their recently launched manifesto which emphasises on job creation.

Raila took the opportunity to defend his opposition to the recent appointment by president Kibaki of three senior police officers saying they were not done in a proper manner.

Just like when he opposed the president’s unilateral appointment of chief justice, the PM said he had genuine reason to oppose the appointment saying such decisions threatened the much desired police reforms.