Raila Odinga: Jubilee leaders took Sh130 billion SGR bribe

NASA Candidate Raila Odinga adresses party supporters during a campaign at Narok Stadium on 29th June, 2017. He was accompanied by Kalonzo Musyoka, Moses Wetangula, Musalia Mudavadi and Isaac Rutto. By Emmmanuel Wanson

The Opposition presidential candidate has claimed that Jubilee leaders were paid billions in kick-backs for the standard gauge railway project.

In bare-knuckled politics that is now the norm between the rival political coalitions - the National Super Alliance (NASA) and the Jubilee Party - Raila Odinga claimed that the leaders were paid bribes amounting to Sh130 billion.

However, the candidate did not provide any proof of who was paid and when.  

"The cost of the SGR was inflated to benefit a few individuals in Jubilee who are working with graft cartels at the expense of Kenyans," he said.

Speaking in Narok County yesterday afternoon as the coalition wound up its campaign in the area, Raila maintained that the cost of the railway was inflated and the extra money pocketed by individuals.

"SGR is our baby. We started it with President Kibaki, but Jubilee hijacked it and inflated the price to benefit from it corruptly," said the former prime minister.

On the collapsed Sh1.2 billion Sigiri bridge in Budalang'i, Busia, Raila claimed the workmanship on the project was poor.

Raila's running mate Kalonzo Musyoka said the main reason Jubilee should be voted out is because its leaders are working with cartels.

Kalonzo claimed that before the 2013 election - when in the company of businessman Jimmy Wanjigi - Deputy President William Ruto tried to woo him to join Jubilee.

"I have written in my book about what happened to me in 2013 and I mentioned Jimmy Wanjigi, who was introduced to me by the current Deputy President," he said.

Bungoma Senator Moses Wetangul'a claimed that the Jubilee leaders have no moral standing to fight corruption because they work with graft cartels.

Musalia Mudavadi, another NASA leader, defended the Opposition's push to amend the Constitution to establish a hybrid executive system that will have a president and a prime minister.

"A hybrid parliamentary system based on the Bomas Draft will not only allow individuals from smaller communities to rise to the highest office in the land but will also encourage an inclusive system of power-sharing," he said.

The Opposition leaders seemed to be reacting to Ruto's claims earlier this week that NASA leaders had no moral standing to fight corruption 'because they are owned by graft cartels'.

NASA's selling point in Narok was agitation for Maasai land rights, historical injustices, and marginalisation of the community.

Raila claimed that the Jubilee leaders had had a hand in the mismanagement of revenue from the Maasai Mara Game Reserve.

The leaders vowed to kick out a revenue-collecting company from the reserve and revert the task to the community, saying the revenue collected was benefiting just a few individuals.

Raila said despite the fact that more than Sh3 billion was collected annually from the park, little is being felt in terms of development.

"When I asked the Maasai in Kajiado not to sell their land, Jubilee said I was inciting people. I know how historical land injustices are affecting the Maasai," he said.

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