We regret that we have sacrificed 10 years for Raila - Kivutha Kibwana

Makueni County Governor Prof Kivutha Kibwana during a past interview with The Standard. [Dennis Okeyo, Standard]

Wiper party chairman Kivutha Kibwana has scoffed at Orange Democratic Movement (ODM party leader Raila Odinga's meeting with President Uhuru Kenyatta.

Prof Kibwana described Raila's move to engage Uhuru without the other three Opposition leaders as lone ranger politics and self-seeking antics.

The Makueni governor said that by reaching out to the President alone, Raila showed that he could not be trusted.

Kibwana said Wiper and its leader Kalonzo Musyoka regretted supporting Raila for 10 years only for him to stab them in the back.

"We regret that we have sacrificed 10 years for Raila. Was Kalonzo wrong to back Raila in 2013? Would the Kalonzo-Musalia ticket in 2017 have offered Kenyans a better chance?" Kibwana posed.

The governor, a close Kalonzo ally, noted that Raila's January 30 'swearing-in' ceremony was a decoy meant to prepare Raila for future negotiations with Uhuru, adding that was why Raila preferred to do it alone.

"So what is the value of the famous oath and pretended treason then and now? Why didn't Raila recognise Uhuru after August 8, 2017 or October 26, 2017? Why did he subject the country to a depressed economy for seven months?"

Imminent strife

He claimed that Kalonzo's absence from the Uhuru Park event saved the country from imminent civil strife.

Kibwana insisted that the three National Super Alliance (NASA) principals were not cowards as they have been labelled by some Opposition supporters.

He called for an all-inclusive dialogue at the national table to discuss the future of Kenya from the stand-point of promoting the common good "rather than pandering to personal, narrow interests".

"We hope all the ODM fraternity who heaped mountains of insults and abuse on Kalonzo and the other two co-principals will find the decency and humility to apologise. Raila risks running out of future coalition partners unless he is now playing an end game," Kibwana stated.

He insisted that Raila's move was opportunistic, adding that all the four NASA principals had the right to continue pushing the Opposition's reform agenda.

Kibwana accused Raila of being unpredictable and wondered whether he would honour his pledge to support Kalonzo in 2022.

"Unfortunately in Kenya, coalition agreements are like fake marriage certificates or alternative toilet paper," Kibwana said.