ODM leaders’ fury at Uhuru raises queries on handshake

From left: John Mbadi, Junet Mohamed, James Orengo, Edward Sifuna and Raila Odinga at a past press briefing in March 2018. In separate assault but consonant of each other, Orengo, Mbadi and Junet tear on Jubilee over ‘irresponsible’ handling of pandemic. [File]

In a sudden fit of passion and quite out of their yearlong norm, ODM leadership in Parliament tore into the Jubilee government on Wednesday, condemning its handling of national matters and reminding it they were still in opposition.

In separate assault but consonant of each other, Senate and National Assembly leaders James Orengo, John Mbadi and Junet Mohamed took their respective chambers by storm, their tone and fury lighting up discussion as to whether the handshake was losing grip.

Invoking the handshake, the trio said they would no longer keep quiet as the government got it wrong at every turn, and continued to brutalise its own people. At the heart of their protestation was government’s handling of the Covid-19 response, ongoing floods situation and city evictions.

The attack, delivered in measured doses, came on the day their leader, former Prime Minister Raila Odinga, had a “chance” lunch meeting with a close ally of Deputy President William Ruto at a Nairobi restaurant.

Grave danger

It also came in the wake of slowed down political activity, where ongoing political programmes, including the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) have been suspended. BBI, a brainchild of President Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila was, until Covid-19 checked in, the talk of the country.

Orengo, the Senate’s Minority leader and senior-most of the trio, claimed Jubilee had not done “anything meaningful” yet it was running out of time. He said Jubilee was synonymous with failure.

“When Kibaki was in power, he built many things, even in Budalang’i. As soon as Jubilee came, even the bridge the President was going to launch collapsed. Failure is the face of Jubilee. They must wake up,” said Orengo.

Mbadi was tearing from the other side, the National Assembly, lambasting the government for allegedly taking Kenyans for a ride with regard to the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mbadi, also ODM chairman, told President Kenyatta’s government the handshake would not lull them from taking it on and warned that they will speak strongly for the people.

“They need to wake up, they should know that the Minority is still there. The handshake did not happen so that we can keep quiet,” said Mbadi.

He said it was disheartening that the government had not shared with the country the game plan against Covid-19, and that it was operating on “business as usual mode” when the country was in grave danger.

“For how long will the government take Kenyans for a ride? For how long are we going to wait for the government to behave normally? It is the government behaving normally and disease is behaving abnormally,” he said.

When Mbadi had finished setting the tone, House Minority Whip Junet Mohamed took the mantle and went for the jugular, accusing unnamed people in government of enriching themselves through disasters and miseries when Kenyans were languishing in poverty.

“We will not allow those in government to get away with it. They must account for every shilling and every penny of the Covid-19 money. People are discussing shamelessly tea of Sh4 million, when people are dying of corona… we must condemn this in the strongest possible manner. I want this house to rise up and condemn this action and hold the government accountable,” Junet said.    

If the twin attack in the two houses was coincidental, the chance lunch meeting between Kapseret MP Oscar Sudi and Odinga completed the trinity of the day’s coincidences. Sudi is Ruto’s unmistakable ground-trooper, doing his bidding, speaking his words and tasting his political meals.

“Today I bumped into Raila Odinga’s table having lunch at a popular restaurant. We had lunch together and thereafter chit chats. Raila is like a father to me. We were close buddies with his son the late Fidel Odinga. When I meet him it doesn’t necessarily mean we discuss politics,” Sudi tweeted of the Pumpkin Restaurant, Kilimani, meet.

But the choice of the three lawmakers and the political rants on the government could jolt the Uhuru-Raila relationship cemented on March 9, 2018 and has been rosy since then.

It is not clear whether there had been a briefing between the three ODM legislatures given that the issues they raised where synonymous and the pitch of their voices clearly high and rhymed.  

Mbadi picked on the lack of seriousness by the government on the pandemic and questioned the rate at which they were testing 1,000 people even when they they had claimed that they could test 37,000.

The budget estimate passed in the Appropriation Bill weeks ago, he said, did not have clear resources to deal with the pandemic when the country was waiting for a clear government intervention.

Game plan

“The Ministry of Health must share with Kenyans the game plan. In the budget estimates, there was little to fight the pandemic. The amount directly linked to Covid-19 was Sh2.6 billion. In a budget of trillions, something is happening in this country that needs to be addressed and we are people’s representatives.”

He said even away from the Covid-19 pandemic, people continue to die across the country when the government was silent.

Junet condemned the decision to have patients and others booked in for quarantine pay for their bills despite the government allocating funds for managing the coronavirus crisis.

“We are not going to allow this government trace people and put them into quarantine and expect them to pay for their upkeep,” said Junet.

Later in the day, the government through Health CS Mutahi Kagwe announced that it would be paying quarantine costs.

Mbadi told the government to also look at the possibility of feeding about two million Kenyans living below the poverty line and who were now hungry.

But yesterday, the ODM chairman said they were playing their legislative role and their hard hitting presentation had nothing to do with the handshake.

“I am a Member of Parliament and a representative of the people, I must speak on their behalf at all times,” he added.